Rights activists decry lack of implementation of labour laws

On the eve of International Workers’ Day on Sunday, various labour leaders called for taking drastic measures for the well-being of the labour class. They said that the real wages of the workers had been declined by 45 per cent due to brisk inflation, especially food inflation, in the country.

Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), Zehra Khan of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF), Hassnia Khatoon of the Association of the Affectees of Baldia Factory Fire, and Riaz Abbasi of the SITE Labour Forum in a joint statement paid rich tributes to the workers martyred in Chicago in 1886.

They said the worst exploitation against which the workers of Chicago had bravely fought was still present in our society as more than 70 million labourers were compelled to work for 12 to 14 hours in factories and workplaces daily, and resultantly their quality of life was going from bad to worse.

The labour leaders maintained that despite the decision of the Sindh government to set Rs25,000 per month as the minimum wage, labourers were getting meager wages that were not enough to even buy basic kitchen items like wheat flour, pulses, rice, milk, cooking oil and vegetables.

The current wages of the labour class were not enough to pay for the utilities of electricity and gas, and education and health care whose prices had been doubled and tripled, the labour leaders lamented.

They said that due to fast depreciation of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar, the real wages of the Pakistani workers had fallen by up to 45 per cent. They said irrespective of the political party ruling the country, the factory owners were not ready to give their workers the government-announced minimum wage.

They announced that on International Workers’ Day today (Monday), the NTUF and HBWWF would arrange processions and demonstrations in different cities of Pakistan to pay homage to the martyrs of Chicago. In Karachi, a grand workers rally would be held at 4pm that would march from Regal Chowk to the Karachi Press Club (KPC).

Torch-wielding march

The Pearl Continental Hotel Karachi Workers Solidarity Committee on Sunday evening organised a torch-wielding march from Shaheen Complex to the KPC. The marchers comprised civil society members, advocates, teachers, rights activists and leaders of various trade unions who were chanting slogans demanding basic labour rights.

After reaching to the KPC, some leaders addressed the marchers and said the current inflation had devastated the labour class who worked for hours for very nominal salaries. They said it was difficult now for the workers to educate and feed their children as they could even not afford two meals a day.

The capitalists are not allowing the implementation of the minimum monthly wage laws at workplaces and labourers are not capable of approaching the courts and get timely justice, they lamented.

The speakers demanded that the government immediately take steps to end joblessness and control inflation. All the labourers and workers should be registered with the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institution, they said.

Pathetic living conditions

In a statement issued on the eve of International Workers’ Day, the Hari Welfare Association (HWA) lamented the conditions of rural workers and peasants who made up more than 70 per cent of the labour force in Sindh's rural areas and toiled long hours in agriculture, farm, and brick kilns.

The HWA said the government of Sindh had never given such people a priority who lacked access to social security, good employment and minimum wage. HWA President Akram Khaskheli said rural workers did not earn the Rs25,000 minimum salary that the Sindh government had guaranteed for the unskilled labourers in 2019.

He claimed that millions of young people in the rural Sindh were being forced to work for little more than Rs6,000 per month in shops, restaurants and workshops due to unemployment, lack of opportunities for education and skill development. Such people included girls, and minor boys who picked cotton and chilies for a pitiful pay

Khaskheli said the oppressors were exploiting the limited economic opportunities available to such workers who are inflicted with poverty, unemployment, hunger, and social injustice. He added that because of lack of irrigation water in lower parts of canals, a majority of peasants in those areas had relocated to the rural labour market where they were being paid meager wages.

The HWA president said such workers frequently spent their free time in roadside rest spots or agricultural fields looking for work as they were unable to find employment or government support because of seasonal jobs and a lack of irrigation water in many locations.

He lamented that suicide had been on the rise in rural areas due to poverty. The statement read that the main cause of the pathetic living conditions of the peasant class was a lack of political will on the part of the administration to ensure labour laws implementation.

The Sindh Industrial Relations Act of 2013 was a labour law specific to the province of Sindh in Pakistan and provided a legal framework for the regulation of industrial relations, including formation and registration of trade unions, the HWA president said. He added that the government had not made any effort to ensure that rural workers, particularly in the agriculture and brick kiln industries, were unionised.

Khaskheli remarked that although the Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Act (SWAWA) was passed in 2019, it was currently inert just like every other law. The SWAWA could have aided in defending rural peasants and worker women from marginalisation, exploitation and abuse in feudal and tribal societies, but it was not implemented.

He also remarked that land reforms had never been a priority of the Sindh government because it comprised landlords and feudal families who were never in the favour of any shift in land-ownership patterns and land distribution. Since 1955, the governments never implemented the Sindh Tenancy Act of 1950, which aimed to address the issues of tenant exploitation and landlessness by granting security of tenure to tenants and regulating the relationship between landlords and tenants.

The HWA urged the Sindh government to guarantee that all the workers in rural regions received a salary of Rs25,000 and people who disobeyed the minimum wage policy faced exceptional penalties. The association also recommended that the government should bolster the monitoring systems by expanding the number of labour inspectors and labor courts so that rural workers may approach them for redress and establish unions to bargain for and defend their rights and labour laws.