Sindh to adopt law to provide social security to all labourers: Ghani

A new law will be enacted in Sindh to universalise the concept of social security so that every labourer and worker in the province regardless of the status of his employment and workplace, including cab and rickshaw drivers, will get the due social security protection.

Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani stated this on Thursday while chairing at his office a meeting on the labour department.

He said legislation would be passed to universalise the concept of social security under the directives of Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari so that every labourer in the province got basic facilities, including health and education, not only for themselves but also for their families.

Ghani said Sindh had become the first province in the country to adopt its own labour policy, and a law had also been passed by the Sindh Assembly to implement this policy.

He said that tripartite committees constituted in every industrial zone of the province having representation of the government, labourers, and employers would be further activated to resolve the issues of industrial workers.

He said steps would be taken on a preferential basis to resolve the issues of labourers associated with the mining profession and other labour work being done to extract mineral resources in the province.

The minister added that a new piece of legislation would be adopted to sort out the issues being faced by the labourers working on a contractual basis in the province.

He said every effort would be made to enforce the laws already passed by the Sindh Assembly to safeguard the interests of the labourers, and rules and regulations of such laws would also soon be drafted.

He said that Sindh had also become the first province to pass the law to protect the rights of woman labourers associated with the agricultural sector of the province.

He said the Sindh Labour Department in February next year would convene a tripartite labour conference where representatives of the labourers, government and employers would deliberate on issues faced by the labourers.

The participants of the meeting expressed resentment that the workers’ welfare fund (WWF) and Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution had yet to be devolved to the Sindh province in view of the devolution of the powers to the province in the light of 18th Constitutional Amendment.

The meeting decided that the chief minister in the next meeting of Council of Common Interests would raise the issue of the pending devolution of the WWF and the EOBI.

The labour leaders that attended the meeting complained about undue restrictions being imposed by the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) against the formation and functioning of trade unions by labourers associated with different sectors of the country.

The meeting resolved that the provincial government on a preferential basis would raise this issue related to the NIRC with the relevant federal authorities.

Ghani said the PPP chairman had issued the directives to the government of the Peoples Party to make every effort to resolve the issues of labourers in Sindh on a priority basis.

On October 8, speakers at a consultation demanded that the government introduce massive policy reforms to ensure compliance with international obligations, especially the 27 UN conventions and covenants on human rights and labour rights under the European Union’s GSP Plus.

They were speaking at a multi-stakeholder consultation on ‘Human Rights Treaties and Core Labour Rights in Pakistan’ organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) at a hotel on Tuesday.

Labour leaders, representatives of various government departments and independent institutions, civil society and human rights activists, and traders attended the consultation to provide their suggestions to improve the situation of human rights and labour rights in Pakistan.

The workers’ representatives demanded that the government introduce land reforms to distribute all the state land among landless peasants to end poverty and ensure food security in Pakistan.

The representatives of exporters and workers were unanimous in their resolve that the GSP Plus facility for Pakistan has significantly contributed to the increase of Pakistani textiles. They emphasised the continuation of the GSP Plus status because the workers have also been benefiting from it.