LAHORE
A comprehensive multi-stakeholders' consultation session was held on Monday on Pakistan Workers Confederation’s (PWC’s) report on the GSP Plus under the chairmanship of Punjab Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar. Labour Secretary Ali Sarfraz and other senior officers of the Punjab labour department, political workers from different parties, workers' leaders from all over the Punjab and representatives of other sections of the society were also present. The labour minister, labour secretary and other representatives of the government praised the initiative and termed it a balanced report.
The participants discussed the contents of the report that discusses country’s progress on ensuring labour rights, labour issues that needed to be addressed on priority and the progress made so far in implementing different international conventions on labour rights. There was a consensus that the GSP Plus status must stay but at the same time focus would be on improving the standard of life of the working class.
The report titled “European Union GSP Plus and Challenges of Labour Standards in Pakistan” has been authored by veteran trade union leaders Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob and Chaudhry Shaukat Ali with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). The FES is a non-profit German organisation working in Germany and abroad to promote freedom, solidarity and social justice through political process.
Trade union leader Chaudhry Yaqoob shared the contents of the report chapter-wise with the audience and highlighted the areas where the government needed to work. He said labour policies would be devised in a way to implement the International Labour Standards (ILS) and gave suggestions on how to comply with the terms and conditions of the GSP Plus status. Yaqoob offered his support and said the PWC would work in collaboration with the government and employers to achieve this end.
He stated that it was time that everybody understood that the growth of businesses and economy could not be ensured without taking workers on board and sharing the profits with them.
Zahoor Awan, Central President PWC, said there were a few questions that were in their minds when they decided to initiate this study and luckily got the support of the FES. These questions include whether the benefits of enhanced exports were reaching common workers who produced these goods for foreign markets? Was the government serious about implementing its international and national obligations and improving the lives and livelihoods of those workers? Had the employers started sharing their enhanced earnings with workers?
FES Representative Abdul Qadir said unique thing about this report was that it had been written by the workers themselves and without relying on any consultants. Nobody else than them was aware of the conditions that existed on ground therefore they were supported by the FES to go ahead with this exercise, he added. Punjab Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar assured full government's support to the workers and urged them to write truth whenever they worked on such a report. Exaggerating details or painting a bleak picture to meet ulterior motives can bring bad name to the country and make things difficult for them, he added. He said the Punjab government was taking measures to check bonded labour, ensure enrollment of children of brick kiln workers at schools, increase the rate of employment of women workers in the overall labour force and so on.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Director I A Rehman appreciated the report released by trade unions and urged the government to implement all the 27 international conventions that it had to comply with under the terms and conditions of the GSP Plus Status.
