Activists demand occupational safety measures at workplaces

In the aftermath of the recent coalmine tragedy in Balochistan, trade unions and labour rights organisations have urged the government to ensure that health and safety measures are instituted and implemented at workplaces including mines, factories and farms to prevent loss of precious life.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, National Trade Union Federation Deputy Secretary Nasir Mansoor said that so far eight bodies have been recovered from the coalmine in Sanjdi, Balochistan, where an explosion occurred earlier this week.

According to Mansoor, 13 miners were believed to be working in the mine when the incident occurred and all of them are presumed to be dead. He further said that two of the five rescuers who entered the mine immediately to save the workers have also died.

Mansoor said this wasn’t the first such incident as earlier in May around 27 miners died from suffocation after a blast in the mine they were working in.

“Since May, more than 70 workers have died in different industrial and workplace accidents across the country and the responsibility of these deaths rests on the shoulders of the government and the employers,” he said.

The NTUF official further said the violation of labour laws and health and safety standards at workplaces by employers, and the criminal carelessness of government officials in this regard pushes innocent workers into death traps. “Almost every day, workplace mishaps occur in our country.”

Zehra Khan, the general secretary of Home-Based Women Workers Federation, said no one had learnt any lesson from the deaths of 260 workers in Ali Enterprises Factory Fire in Baldia Town in 2012 and the death of 30 workers at the Gadani ship-breaking yard in November, 2016. “The departments and agencies tasked to check such incidents seem powerless to stop this mayhem,” she said.

Khan said mines in the country have become a virtual graveyard as hundreds of workers die in accidents. As these mines are situated in far-flung areas, this information does not properly reach to the public, she said, adding that the number of these incidents is constantly rising and no step is being taken to stop this.

Riaz Abbasi, general secretary of Atlas Group of Companies Workers Union CBA, Bashir Ahmed Mahmoodani, president of Ship-breaking Workers Union Gadani CBA and Saeeda Khatoon, chairperson of Ali Enterprises Factory Fire Affectees Association, also spoke at the news conference held at the NTUF office.

They demanded that health and safety laws should be passed in other provinces of the country like they have been passed in Sindh, and be implemented in letter and spirit. The speakers also demanded an end to private social auditing system and improvements in labour inspections. They also demanded to give compensation of Rs3 million to each bereaved family of the Baldia factory fire.