NTUF flays removal of DC who took action against errant ship-breakers

Showing concerns over the overnight transfer of the Lasbela district’s deputy commissioner for taking action against ship-breakers in Gadani for their failure to ensure health and safety for labourers at workplace, trade union leaders have called it an act of victimisation and demanded of the Sindh government to withdraw its notification.

Leaders of the National Trade Union Federation and its affiliate, Ship-Breaking Workers Union, said Deputy Commissioner Mujeebur Rehman Qanbarani had sealed plot number 86 at the Gadani ship-breaking yard on Wednesday for not having at all health and safety facilities for workers and had warned other owners of similar action if they did not fulfil the lawful requirements to ensure safety of workers.

“In a bid of revenge, the government, instead of backing and appreciating its deputy commissioner, transferred him. This depicts a rampant criminal nexus between ship-breaking yard owners and corrupt politicians and government officials, who by this way of them are responsible for workers’ killings in Gadani,” said Rafiq Baloch, NTUF central president.

Trade union leaders called the transfer an act of victimisation , which proved the imperialistic mindset of the ruling elite, including ship-breaking yard owners, who could not tolerate – despite their wrongdoings – legal action against them.

The NTUF and the Ship-Breaking Workers Union have been demanding health and safety measures for a long time, but the government has done nothing to improve the situation despite witnessing the deadliest disaster on November 1, 2016, in which 26 workers were killed as a decommissioned oil tanker caught fire.

In tripartite meetings held later, the government and employers had assured the workers that their safety would be guaranteed at their workplace and, accordingly, sufficient arrangements would be made. However, none of those pledges materialised and workers who raised voice against this were deemed troublemakers.

Baloch and other NTUF office-bearers, including deputy general secretary Nasir Mansoor and Balochistan president Bashir Mehmoodani, demanded from the government to withdraw its notification of transferring the deputy commissioner and ensure workers’ safety at workplaces as doing so was its legal and constitutional responsibility.

The NTUF stressed that the government must take on board the real representatives of workers to make legislation for providing health care and safety to workers.  Moreover, it said, the government must ratify the Hong Kong convention on ship-breaking and provide medical facilities, such as hospitals, dispensaries and ambulances in Gadani.

Last year’s oil tanker fire, which killed 26 workers and injured over 50 others, had promoted calls for better safety standards at the Gadani ship-breaking yard. In view of the initial civil society outcry, all ship-breaking operations at the yard were banned and promises to review safety standards were made. However, all was forgotten in a few months’ time and it is business as usual in Gadani.