Sindh labour dept criticised for not implementing health safety laws at workplaces

Criticising the Sindh labour department for its “worst performance and failure” to implement the occupational health and safety act at workplaces, labour and human rights leaders said on Monday factory owners, relevant government departments, legislatures and society had not given any importance to safety at workplaces, and, as a result, accidents and tragedies at workplaces had risen sharply.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Karamat Ali, convener of the National Labour Council; Nasir Mansoor, general secretary of the National Trade Union Federation Pakistan; Asad Iqbal Butt, and co-chairman of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan, said the anti-worker attitude of the provincial labour department could be gauged from the fact that 60 per cent of posts in this department had been lying vacant for the last 10 years, and, resultantly, the performance of the department was zero.

“Had the government of Sindh and its labour department taken strict steps after the sad accident of the Baldia factory fire, the tragedy of the Korangi factory fire could have been avoided,” they said.

Labour leaders said that due to the untiring struggle of labour organisations, the Sindh Health and Safety Act was passed in the year 2016, but it was not implemented, and even a meeting of the council under this law was yet to be summoned. They warned that if the government failed to take immediate steps for health and safety at workplaces, the workers would not allow the unsafe factories and industries to run.

The apathy of industrialists could be gauged from the fact that when the Sindh government fixed the minimum wage at Rs25,000 per month, the industrialists instead of accepting it tried to blackmail the government, besides challenging the minimum wage in the Sindh High Court, they said.

In these circumstances when the workers were given no right to make their unions, and employers were not accepting a rise in wages nor were they ready to register their workers with pension and social security institutions, the workers were left with no other choice but to protest and show resistance, speakers said.

Had we learnt a lesson from the Baldia factory fire incident and taken serious steps to ensure the safety of workplaces, the tragic incident of the Korangi factory fire could have been avoided, labour leaders said, adding that there was no reliable data at the government level about the number of deceased and injured workers in such incidents.

They said that a few days before the ninth anniversary of the Baldia factory fire, a factory in Korangi caught a fire, which showed that the lives of workers were still not safe at their workplaces. They said 260 workers had burned alive in the Baldia factory fire, but not a single criminal had been punished.

The speakers said the most important aspect of the Baldia factory fire, the lack of national and international safety standards, was ignored and the incident was given a political colour. However, instead of improving the industrial atmosphere in Pakistan, the ban on factory inspections slapped by Zia’s martial law in Pakistan was still there despite the passage of 45 years.

This was in spite of the fact that as per the Factory Act, an annual inspection of every factory to check health and safety measures was a requirement of law, they said. However, the system of factory inspections was put on the back burner, and as a result deadly industrial mishaps were on the rise, they added.

It was sad that the Punjab government had announced an end to factory inspections altogether, which was an open violation of the ILO convention, they said. The speakers demanded from the government to lodge a case of murder against the owner of the Korangi factory, its administration and the heads of related entities, and to arrest them immediately.

They also demanded that the heirs of the deceased should be paid compensation at the rate of Rs2.5 million each, and free medical treatment should be provided to all the injured. They asked that the payment of pensions, group insurance and gratuity should be paid immediately to the heirs of the martyred workers.

Labour leaders also demanded sacking officials who gave permission to set up an industrial unit in a residential locality and give them punishment as per law. They asked for conducting a judicial probe into all industrial incidents of this type to fix responsibility and know the reasons behind such incidents.

The speakers also called for implementing the recent increase in the minimum wage, enforcing the Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Act, and making it mandatory to set up health and safety committees on factory level in all industrial zones.

They asked for modernizing the labour inspection system, filling the vacant posts of labour inspectors in the Sindh labour department, and giving equal representation to females in this process. They also demanded starting a fresh probe into the Baldia factory fire incident and including the owners of the factory in the investigation.