Informal workers neither registered nor monitored

LAHORE: Pakistani labour laws are outdated and anti-productive, benefitting neither the workers nor the employers. Workers unions, if they exist somewhere, usually serve the purpose of union leaders instead of the workers.

There is no implementation of labour laws in whatever form they exist. There are issues of minimum wage, child labour, inhuman working conditions, and polluting factories.

Provincial governments as regulators have failed to arrest the malpractices even in the documented industries and organisations.

Registered entities show low number of employees to avoid paying monthly social security and employees’ old age benefit contributions.

And while the regulators think that that the non-documented sector does not fall under their domain, one must understand that the workers welfare laws do not differentiate between workers in registered entities or unregistered ones.

It is the duty of the labour department to ensure availability of all facilities defined in law to all workers, regardless if the entity they work for is registered or unregistered. A stark contrast can be noticed between the attitudes towards workers in export-oriented sectors and others.

The exporting industries provide clean working environment, including adequate lighting and fire escapes, first aid facilities, fire-fighting equipment, subsidised canteens, fair price shops and babysitting arrangements in case of women workers.

The exporters implement all labour laws of the country, including minimum wage and overtime as prevalent in the country. In addition, they ensure the safety of their workers according to the global standards. They do all this not because of any state or union pressure, but because their foreign buyers have imposed these conditions. The foreign buyers conduct regular audit of these manufacturing units to ensure that they are fully compliant with the labour welfare directives and cancel export orders if any industry is found defaulting on the parameters provided to them.

Such facilities are not available in most of the unionised manufacturing units of the country. In fact, major unionised organisations like Railways, WAPDA, PIA, are in financial trouble even though none of these organisations provide clean and hazard free environment to their workers.

The availability of global standard facilities to the workers of exporting industries is due to the total compliance of rules assured by the importing firms. The rules are not properly followed in other industries that bring distress to the workers.

Unions are not the answer to the problem. The solution lies in implementation of the labour laws in letter and spirit.

Being used to exploiting workers, the export industries had to accept the conditionalities of the foreign buyers. Non-compliance would have resulted in cancellation of orders. Their cost naturally increased. However, after a while they found that their productivity also increased substantially.

The absence of workers due to health issues was sharply reduced. Better environment increased the workers’ willingness to produce more. Increase in workers efficiencies has more than covered the additional expenses.

The improvement in hygiene and sanitation conditions in the factories has improved the health of the workers. They now take adequate food at highly subsidised canteens.

The incidences of injuries have almost vanished. The exporters must even comply with environmental standards and must install expensive water treatment plants as well.

The exporters are bound to pay double wage for overtime. The foreign buyers depute labour compliance auditors not only to inspect the factory for observing compliance of working conditions, but they also interview workers randomly in private to ensure that they get the overtime and other benefits according to the law of the land.

The importance of implementing labour laws is always felt in times of crisis. The registered industries provided the dues of the workers that were shown the door during the crisis. Unregistered small and medium enterprises however fired their workers without even clearing their dues. Labour laws are also meant to safeguard the interests of the employers. It is an irony that labour laws protect the workers on paper only and instead employers exploit the workers with impunity.

The government should bring the rules of hiring and firing of workers in line with best global practices, giving the private sector a free hand in this regard as is the case in the United States, Denmark or New Zealand (these countries do not compromise on workers’ rights).

It is also the responsibility of the state to ensure compliance of all labour standards through a corruption free labour institution. Rigid hiring and firing laws push both employers and workers into the informal sector. Informal sector workers are generally paid lower wages and enjoy no legal protections or social benefits.