Trade unionists lambaste labour dept for harassing workers, not implementing laws

In 2017 when the incumbent Sindh labour minister Saeed Ghani was contesting a by-election as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate on a Sindh Assembly seat, PS-114, several prominent labour organisations had during a press conference announced their support for Ghani, whose late father was also a labour leader.

The labour organisations expected that Ghani would become a voice of workers in the Sindh Assembly due to his family background. Ghani also became the provincial labour minister, but many labour groups now seem to regret their support for him as their expectations have not been met.

On Tuesday, representatives of labour unions expressed concern over prevailing anti-worker policies in Sindh and demanded urgent remedies to quell growing unrest among the working class.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, National Labour Council Convenor Karamat Ali, National Trade Union Federation Secretary General Nasir Mansoor, Democratic Workers Federation’s Liaquat Sahi, Home-Based Women Workers Federation’s Zehra Khan, and representatives of regional tripartite committees Riaz Abassi and Bakht Zameen lamented poor working conditions in the province saying that the labour department and related bodies had failed to safeguard the workers' rights.

They announced that an emergency meeting of representative labour organisations had been called for mutual consultation so that a future course of action could be decided. The labour leaders said the Sindh government had completely failed to implement labour laws in the province, due to which the workers of industrial, financial and other sectors were deprived of their due rights.

The speakers alleged that instead of helping aggrieved workers, the labour department had been harassing them and suppressing their voice. They added that establishing trade unions had become a challenge in Sindh and the labour department was refusing to issue data of the newly registered labour unions, which showed its anti-worker attitude.

They said that after Sindh became the first province that announced Rs25,000 as the minimum wage for unskilled workers in 2021, factory owners went to the Supreme Court that ordered the Sindh Minimum Wages Board to determine the minimum wages within two months. They lamented that some officials of the board were creating hurdles in the implementation of the court order.

When the federal government and all other three provinces had announced Rs25,000 as the minimum wage, the inaction of the Sindh government was surprising, the labour leaders said.

Similarly, they lamented that the Sindh government had failed to implement the Sindh Home-Based Workers Act, under which hundreds of thousands of home-based workers had to be registered with the labour department.

The speakers said that similar situation prevailed in the agriculture and fisheries sectors, the workers of which were recognised as workers under the Sindh Industrial Relations Act 2014, but the rules of that Act were yet to be made and the registration of those workers with social security and other institutions was yet to begin.

They said that the contract labour system was illegal and the Supreme Court had already issued clear order in this regard, but the illegal contract system prevailed in Sindh under the nose of the labour department.

They added that the Sindh government through its senior ministers had assured revival of the Pakistan Steel Mills and resolution of the issues of its workers but nothing had been done in this regard as well.

The labour leaders demanded forensic audit of the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution, Workers Welfare Board and other similar agencies as they alleged widespread corruption and mismanagement in those institutions.