The historic city of Lahore was host to The South Asia Labour Conference which started on April 24 and continued till April 26. It was hosted by Punjab Labour Department with the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The purpose, as declared by the government, was to bring together government officials, workers and employers’ representatives from several countries in the region including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, so that they could share their experiences and learn from each other how they tackled their problems.

No do doubt there is so much in common. Almost all these countries have large informal economies where women and men are trapped in vulnerable jobs, outside the purview of labour laws. There are domestic workers, home-based workers, agricultural workers, bonded labour, child labour and so on. Even in the formal sector, the application of labour standards and laws is faulty. Implementation of labour laws and assurance of safety standards at workplace are still a dream in the presence of corrupt officials and their collusions with owners.

Such discrepancies result in horrific industrial accidents such as the factory fires in Karachi and Dhaka where precious human lives were lost. This loss of life could have been avoided if requisite safety measures had been taken in advance and the labour inspection teams had properly scanned these factories.

Another common factor is that the labour market’s information is not collected in these countries in a structured matter and statistics are based on estimations. This is one major reason why decision-makers fail to develop policies and programmes which can meet the exact needs and expectations of people.

And just as problems are common, the search for solutions is also a common interest in the region and the governments have taken some positive steps recently. For example, Bangladesh has taken measures to improve occupational health and safety standards across its industrial sector. Sri Lanka has been working with destination countries on improving the terms and conditions for its migrant workers. India is developing policies and doing legislation to extend legal protection to domestic workers.

Pakistan has also made significant progress in revising and modernising labour laws through new laws such as those on workplace harassment, amending old ones such as the Sindh Industrial Relations Act 2013 which now recognizes agriculture and fishery sector workers under law, and draft legislation for home-based workers.

However, despite all this, labour rights activists and human rights defenders believe there is a long way to go and the governments need to take tough decisions which may not be liked by the influential and wealthy employers.

One such area which is so far neglected and should be focused on is labour inspection, says Lala Hasan, a human rights defender and Outreach Manager at the Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA), Islamabad. This area, he says, needs focus as it appears to be missing in the themes under discussion in the conference.

His point is that the backbone of any effective, responsive labour market is a strong, independent, empowered labour inspection system. The government of Pakistan has ratified the ILO convention on labour inspection, C150, by which it commits to providing all support to labour inspectors to enforce labour laws, advise employers on how to comply with national legislation and even report issues they come across that are not in their purview.

However, on ground, the situation is rather different. Lala says usually the number of labour inspectors is far short of the number of factories, shops and commercial establishments that are registered and liable to inspection. Often, labour inspectors have to rely on their own resources to travel between office and factories.

The labour inspectors have over 70 laws in their purview and little training on their application. Employers see them as a nuisance rather than as a support structure that can help them put into place standards that have been shown to improve safety, workers’ welfare and therefore, ultimately, productivity.

Lala tells TNS another angle within labour inspection that is ignored is the almost complete absence of female labour inspectors. Though quotas for women’s employment in the public sector are in place across the country, there is only one female labour inspector in Punjab, one in Sindh and none in the other provinces. "Female labour inspectors help open up access to women workers. Women are often reluctant to talk to male labour inspectors and vice versa. As a result, their issues remain unheard, unreported and, therefore, unaddressed."

Recently, with the support of the ILO, all the provincial departments of labour have been working on strengthening the labour inspection system, refining the collection and analysis of data and improving the reporting on the application of labour standards.

Lala says there is now talk of the provincial governments announcing a special scheme to recruit female labour inspectors and provide them a supportive environment including transport. "This is a welcome step."

While local and international delegates join conference sessions at the city’s best five-star hotel, labourers, labour rights activists and civil society representatives are holding protests on the sidelines of this event. Brick kiln workers from different parts of the province are holding sit-in in front of Lahore Press Club where a parallel labour conference is also under way. The parallel conference has been organised by Labour Action Committee comprising Labour Qaumi Movement, Labour Education Foundation (LEF), Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Pattan Development Organisation, HomeNet Pakistan, Textile Garments Powerloom Workers Union Punjab and Awami Workers Party.

Khalid Mehmood, Director, Labour Education Foundation (LEF), tells TNS that despite a lot of pressure from the government agencies, police and Labour Department, workers are continuing with the sit-in. Their demand is very simple; implementation of the minimum wage rate announced by the Punjab government i.e. 740 rupees per one thousand bricks. He adds this movement of brick kiln workers, lead by Labour Qaumi Movement, for implementation of the government-announced rate is continuing for the last eight months but there is no political will on part of the government to implement its own rate.

Khalid says the Punjab government wants to show it to the world, especially the European Union which has granted GSP Plus status to Pakistan, that every thing is rosy here. This status, he says, is conditional and Pakistan has to show that it is complying with the terms of dozens of international conventions on human rights, labour rights, environmental conservation etc to benefit from it.

"We have no problem with this but our concern is that there should be true representation of the deprived labourers and the issues that haunt them should have been highlighted and addressed," he adds.

According to a statement issued by the committee, its main demands are that union rights should be granted to agricultural, home-based and informal sector, minimum wage should be raised to Rs20,000, all workers should be registered with social security and Employees Old-Age Benefits Association (EOBI), factory inspection system should be improved and there should be no privatisation.

Interestingly, the statement states "that most of the 4 million out-of-school children in the province belong to families whose employers violate labour laws. Because of the failure of the government to implement labour laws in letter and spirit, it would also fail to achieve 100 per cent school enrolment in the province."

In this context, holding a South Asian level labour conference makes little sense. In our view, this is just an act of deception. If the government is serious about improving working conditions in factories and well being of the working people, it must take concrete steps prior to holding of such a conference.

Syeda Ghulam Fatima, Secretary General, Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF), alleges that bonded labour exists everywhere and the government machinery focuses on hiding facts rather than implementing labour laws. She says she was thrashed by brick kiln owners when she tried to expose their malpractices and the district administration also ignored her complaints. The government must reign in such mafias if it wants to send positive messages across the world, she concludes.