Global labour organisations vow to compel German firm KIK to compensate victims’ families
Karachi
International level talks on the issue of compensating the families of the Ali Enterprises factory fire tragedy victims are welcome, speakers said at a general body meeting of the Association of the Affectees of Ali Enterprises held at the PMA House on Saturday.
Many families of the victims and foreign legal experts including German attorney Dr Remo Klinger, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights senior legal adviser Dr Caroline Terwindt, vice legal director Dr Miriam Saage-Maab, and Tara Scally from Clean Clothe Campaign, Netherlands attended the meeting.
It was presided over by the association’s president Muhammad Jabir.
The representatives of the affected families praised the mediatory role of the International Labour Organisation and termed the resumption of talks for the payment of compensation an important development.
They thanked the participants of the Asia Living Conference in Islamabad for observing a one-minute silence in the memory of the factory fire victims and to express solidarity with them.
They welcomed the resolution presented by the Association of Affectees of Ali Enterprises, the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, and the Wage Indicator Foundation for making living wages the basis for calculating the amount of compensation.
The participants of the meeting thanked the trade unions, labour organisations and the governments of Germany and Holland for their efforts to persuade the German brand KIK to resume talks.
They reiterated that the most important stakeholders were the affected families and their participation in any talks or agreement was necessary.
The lawyers from Germany briefed the general body meeting on the development of the law suit filed in Germany. They said the case had been given a lot of importance and three of the affected families who had filed a case against KIK would visit Germany from June 15 to 25.
There, they will meet the representatives of trade unions, elected members, government officials and organisations of human rights. The German lawyers also gave details of the case filed in Italy against the Italian social audit company RINA.
Tara Scally from Clean Clothe Campaign, Netherlands, told the participants of the meeting about the development achieved in the talks and said their organisation would not leave the affected families alone.
“We have been expressing solidarity with the affected families from day one.”
The representatives of the IndusrtiALL Global Union and UNI Global Union, Ben Van Peper Straete, said after the movement for the payment of compensation to the affected families of Rana Plaza and Tazreen factory tragedies in Bangladesh, they had started a campaign for the payment of compensation to the heirs of the Ali Enterprises victims, which resulted in the first round of talks with KIK. He added that KIK had agreed to solve this issue completely. “We will continue to support your struggle.”
NTUF general secretary Nasir Mansoor said his federation had been struggling for the last four years along with the association of the affected families so that not only they could be compensated, but justice too was served.
He said the NTUF was of the opinion that to stop such mishaps from occurring again, it was necessary that the government should ensure the implementation of the international labour standards including health and safety and make bound the local industrialists, as well as, the international brands to follow them in letter and spirit.
The general body meeting unanimously demanded that the participation of the association of the heirs should be ensured in the talks on the Baldia factory tragedy.
In their resolution they demanded that the talks should be successfully concluded as soon as possible, KIK should accept its fault and compensate and tender an apology to the victims’ families, the government should fulfill its promises with the heirs, and the pending cases in the labour department because of the commissioner of compensation’s post lying vacant for three years should be expedited upon.
Over 250 workers were burnt alive in a devastating fire at the multi-storey Ali Enterprises garment factory in Baldia Town in September 2012.
