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Workers must form a parallel political force to end exploitation, say activists

By Our Correspondent
May 02, 2018

Demanding implementation of mandatory occupational safety measures, labour rights, higher minimum wage and regular labour inspections, trade unions and workers’ organisations took to the streets on Tuesday to observe International Labour Day.

The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) took out a rally in this regard from Regal Chowk to Karachi Press Club. Speaking to the gathering, NTUF Deputy General Secretary Nasir Mansoor said that May Day was a flag of revolt against the “atrocities of capitalism” and it will continue to wave until the system was over in the world.

“Capitalism is an anti-human system to its core that, on one hand, has given birth to the dark faces of hunger, poverty, unemployment and exploitation, and on the other hand, has created social, political and economical anarchies and widespread wars,” he said.

According to Mansoor, the system’s 600-year history was full of malpractices in which it had exploited the basic human norms and rights and had destroyed the environment to the brink of extinction. Because of it, humankind, for the first time in its known history is struggling for its existence, he said.

NTUF President Rafiq Baloch said that Pakistan’s estimated 6.5 million-strong workforce was denied of their basic and constitutional rights to unionise and collective bargaining. Some 90 per cent of industrial units are not implementing the minimum wage and eight-hour shift laws, he said, adding 95 per cent of the total workforce was not registered in social security and pension funds because they don’t get appointment letters from their employers.

Baloch further said that several factories have almost no health and safety facilities. “Labour inspection and laws were virtually suspended due to which factories and other workplaces had become death mills for workers. The Ali Enterprises [Baldia factory] fire and Gadani oil tanker tragedy are stark reminders of the worsening situation,” he said.

The NTUF president further said that along with the employers, the government and its relevant departments were also responsible for the mistreatment of workers. “Due to government’s apathy, employers are free to treat their workers as slaves,” he said. “Among them, the agricultural workers in rural areas have been through the worst situation.”

Addressing the gathering, Home-Based Women Workers Federation General Secretary Zehra Khan said workers in unorganised or informal sector especially in agriculture and home-based industries have been forced to work in inhumane conditions. “For agriculture, fisheries, home-based and construction workers there are neither set working hours nor enough wages paid for them to be able to make ends meet,” he said.

She lamented that four years had passed since the Sindh Industrial Relations Act, 2013 brought agriculture and fisheries workers in the legal definition of workers, yet there has been no practical implementation of the law and the authorities have not even drafted its rules. Similarly, she said, the home-based workers draft bill is yet to be passed through the Sindh Assembly that has nearly completed its five-year term.

“Pakistan has so far ratified more than 38 conventions of the International Labour Organization, eight of which state basic labour rights, but there is no implementation on them,” she said. “The industrialists are earning billions of rupees from the GSP Plus status granted by the European countries but they keep on disrespecting the labour laws that they are bound to follow in the status.”

Adarsh Inqalabi Forum leader Mushtaq Ali Shan said that the mainstream political parties have been in power for decades, yet none of them have introduced a concrete program to address the issues faced by the labourers in the country nor do they mention it in their manifesto. “The governments represent the capitalists and feudal lords,” he said. “It is the need of the hour that the working class ends the fabricated racial, religious and all other divides, organises on a platform and turns its unity into a parallel political force march towards the workers and peasants rule in the country.”

The speakers demanded that minimum wage should be set at at least Rs30,000, all workers should be issued appointment letters, implementation of occupational safety and health and labour laws be ensured, labour inspection system should be revived, Employees Old-age Benefit Institution and other social security institutions be made accessible to all workers, regardless of whether they are in the formal or informal sector, the minimum pension be made equal to that of minimum wage and eight-hour work shifts be ensured.

The activists also demanded that the decision to privatise Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan International Airlines be overturned, the right to unionise be given to workers in all institutions, including Karachi Ship Yard, all forms of contractual employment, including third-party contracts, be abolished, workers be regularised in all government, public and private sectors, workers rights enshrined in GSP Plus status be ensured, standard labour laws and rights be given to workers and implemented in textile and all other industries, implementing on SIRA, and agriculture workers be given the right to unionise and collective bargaining.