Heirs of the victims of the Baldia factory fire and representatives of labour organisations on Wednesday expressed concerns about the pact of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with an insurance company regarding the compensation money given by a German brand for the heirs. Terming it non-transparent, they rejected the pact.
The reservations were expressed during a joint press conference by leaders of the Ali Enterprises Factory Fire Affectees Association (AEFFAA), the National Trade Union Federation, the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research, the Home-Based Women Workers Federation, the Joint Action Committee, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the SITE Labour Forum.
Muhammad Siddique, Hussina Khan, Nasir Mansoor, Karamat Ali, Asad Iqbal Butt, Zehra Khan, Mahnaz Rahman and Riaz Abbasi said the ILO took a unilateral decision without taking the real party of the Baldia factory fire into confidence. They stressed that the interests of labourers will be safeguarded at all costs.
They said that the general body meeting of the AEFFAA was held in Karachi on Sunday, and important decisions were taken on the occasion. They added that the meeting paid rich tributes to their leader Saeeda Khatoon, who died battling cancer, and greatly lauded her struggle.
They said that after a great struggle the heirs of the 260 fire victims, the dozens of injured, their supporters, and local and international labour organisations inked a deal with the German brand KiK that agreed to pay a long-term compensation of $5.1 million.
A representative of KiK had signed the deal in 2016 with the workers organisations under the ILO, the IndustriALL Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign, and the funds were given to the ILO Geneva office, they added.
They said that under this deal, an oversight committee was formed at Pakistan level to distribute these funds and take care of the related issues with representation of the government, labour organisations, the heirs and the factory owners.
The heirs demanded that as per the deal, the compensation funds should be brought to Pakistan and invested with mutual consultation to ensure lifelong assistance of the heirs and the affected people.
In this regard, the speakers pointed out, the association of the heirs and the labour organisations, in consultation with noted Pakistani lawyers, had shared an investment plan with the ILO, but the ILO did not respond.
They said that sadly, the ILO violated the deal, and despite repeated demands of the heirs, it kept the compensation funds for five years and distributed monthly compensation among the heirs through the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (Sessi).
Hence, they added, a big chunk of these funds was spent, and the heirs and the stakeholders were not informed about it, so the ILO was responsible for all of this. They said the ILO did not play any role in helping the affected people, as it ignored the demands of the heirs and stakeholder labour organisations, took unilateral and non-transparent decisions, and implemented them.
They also said the ILO convened a meeting on December 15 when a member of the oversight committee and patron of the AEFFAA Saeeda was hospitalised for cancer treatment, while another member Nasir Mansoor was abroad and a third member Karamat Ali was ill.
The speakers said they had requested that the meeting be postponed but in vain. In this meeting, they said, the ILO ratified a contract with an insurance company that had already been signed before the meeting without consultation with the stakeholders, who were not told about the contract.
They said the ILO had no right to sign a deal about the funds of the heirs without consulting them and in such a non-transparent manner. After this non-transparent deal, some officials of the ILO Karachi office, with the help of a Sessi employee, have been harassing the heirs and forcing them to sign some documents written in the English language, causing unrest among the heirs, they added.
They said that after the international agreement between the German brand and labour organisations, the Sindh government and its labour department are the essential parties of the contract.
Through them the payment of monthly compensation via Sessi was started, they pointed out, but the labour department failed to play its due role and did not take all the members of the oversight committee into confidence.
They said that the contract with the insurance company before the meeting of the oversight committee and without any consultation is the worst example of non-transparency and an attack on the basic and democratic right of the heirs.
They demanded that the ILO invest the compensation funds after consultation with the heirs and the stakeholder labour organisations. They asked them to summon a meeting of the oversight committee, and all the documents, including those regarding the deal with the insurance company, should be shared with its members.
They demanded that the ILO Karachi office stop harassing the heirs, warning that a protest would be held outside the office. They asked the Sessi commissioner to start an investigation against their employee Maroof for forcing the heirs to sign some unknown papers.
They asked holding accountable the officers who had caused a decrease in the original compensation funds. They demanded that the compensation commissioner decide the gratuity cases of the deceased workers.
They asked to ensure Employees Old-age Benefits Institution pension to the parents of the deceased in the light of the decision of the Sindh High Court. They asked to stop the selling of the affected factory and instead erect a symbol there in memory of the deceased workers.