Workers will return to face the same perils again

Ship-breaking yard to reopen without safety measures;

union bodies say govt pressured into making decision

As the Gadani ship-breaking yard is likely to reopen shortly following last month’s tragedy, workers and trade union associations are concerned that there has been no talk of compensation or implementing safety measures before resuming work.

Twenty-six workers were killed and more than 70 injured on November 1 when an explosion ripped through a decommissioned Japanese-made oil tanker moored at plot No 54 for dismantling at the yard.

A fire engulfed the entire 24,000-tonne vessel soon after the first blast, trapping workers inside it. The blaze raged on for four days, fanning hopelessness regarding the workers’ fate. More than a 100 workers were reportedly aboard the ship when the incident occurred. Five of them are still missing.

The yard has been inactive since the tragedy, as the Balochistan government had suspended all ship-breaking activities there. On Thursday the Pakistan Ship Breakers Association (PSBA) had appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri to allow resumption of the ship-breaking activities.

“It was the first such accident in 45 years,” PSBA executive member Mohammed Ikhlaq Memon told a news conference. “It was a tragic incident, but a mishap can’t be used as an excuse to shut down an entire industry.”

However, labour bodies condemned the conference, in which there was no reference of implementing the occupational safety and health standards at the yard. Workers’ deaths in accidents have become regular occurrences, mainly because of no safety arrangements. “Every month one or two workers die in the ship-breaking industry,” said Ataullah, a worker from Swat who has been in the industry for a decade.

Workers and trade union associations believe that owners of ship-breaking companies have pressured the government into allowing reopening the yard. “The November 1 tragedy speaks volumes about the breach of labour laws,” said a recent statement issued by Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation and Bashir Mehmoodani of the Ship-breaking Workers Union. “The owners and industrialists only spoke about their businesses and profits. They didn’t learn anything from their criminal negligence.”

Workers are also disappointed that the injured and the heirs of the deceased have yet to be compensated in accordance with the government’s announcement.

A few days ago Balochistan Planning & Development Minister Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai had distributed Rs1.3 million among the heirs of four workers who were Gadani residents.

“We were told that the ship-breaking yard owners will pay Rs1.5 million as compensation, but we have received a cheque for Rs1.3 million,” said a relative of a worker who had died on the ship. He said the owner had promised to pay the remaining amount soon.

However, the heirs of 22 workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Malakand Division and South Punjab are yet to be compensated.

A local journalist, Ismail Sasoli, said the authorities had promised to distribute the compensation money among the heirs in their respective hometowns.

However, an MPA from Upper Dir, Sahibzada Sanaullah, said the ship-breaking association and the Balochistan government had yet to compensate the injured and the heirs of the deceased. “If they don’t compensate in the next two weeks,” warned Sanaullah, “I shall launch a protest against the ship-breaking association and the Balochistan government.”

The MPA suggested that the federal government, the Balochistan administration and the ship-breaking yard owner pitch in to pay Rs3 million to the heirs of the deceased, as “all of them have been earning billions of rupees from the industry”.

He lamented that despite making a lot of money through this industry, no stakeholder seemed interested in spending any money on workers’ welfare.