Labourers’ rights demanded in Sindh People’s Assembly

SUKKUR: The Sindh People’s Assembly, part of global movement of Peoples’ Assembly 2020, was organised on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 to raise voices and key issues, including decent work environment, social protection for all marginalised communities and influence policies from the local to global level.

During the assembly, marginalised people, home based and minority workers raised their voices, concerns, challenges and highlighted issues related to decent work environment and social protection under SDGs Goal 8 (decent work & economic growth). On the 5th anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2020, which was marked on September 25 was also part of the ‘Global Week of Action’. The assembly moved key demands, including immediate elections of the local governments to ensure effective engagement of the people in realization of the SDGs.

The People’s Assembly also demanded the availability of baseline data related to all SDGs for effective implementation of monitoring and surveillance to ensure protection of workers in informal economies by introducing universal social protection for all. It also demanded the implementation of minimum wages across sectors, including domestic workers, daily wagers, and street labourers. It stressed to ensure implementation of protection against harassment at workplace under proper legislation across the country by setting up structures, allocating adequate resources and extending its outreach to protect workers, especially in the informal economy.

The Assembly emphasised on protection of workers through implementation of labour law mechanism as envisaged in provincial laws, also demanded to set up mechanism to increase women participation in various sectors. It suggested for integration of available social protection and safety nets with labour issues and to ensure collection of data of daily wage workers to develop policy frameworks to bring them into the mainstream work force. The Assembly also demanded the rights to organise workers’ unions and collective bargaining for workers across sectors.