In Pakistan, women engaged in informal sectors are exploited in an unrecognised, unregulated, unorganised and undervalued form of labour, said Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) Chairperson Nazia Sardar while speaking at a public forum held as part of May Day celebrations. It is the time that women workforce that comprises 52 percent of our total population must be acknowledged as workers and their rights must be protected by introducing legislation by the government, she added.
The public forum organised by the AWAM in collaboration with the Workers Party Pakistan (WPP) and other local workers’ organisations to discuss the problems of working class and government priorities was held at Quaid-e-Azam Hall of District Courts Faisalabad. The speakers paid tribute to the historic struggle of Chicago labourers and renewed their pledge for rights of workers. More than 350 male and female participants including labourers, political workers, students, journalists and representatives of human rights organisations were present on the occasion.
Other speakers were AWAM Executive Secretary Naseem Anthony, WPP official Arif Ayaz, Agency for Sustainable Development (ASDP) Director Amina Zaman, AWAM Coordinator Shazia George and labour rights activists Arshad Aziz, Asghar Shaheen, Sajid Iqbal Safdar, Ashiq Hussain, Amdad Awan and Abdul Manaf. Nasim Anthony said the government had failed to ensure the minimum wages and uninterrupted power supply to enable the workers to stay on their jobs and added that there had been a wide gap in tall claims and actual commitments.
“The government seems helpless against the current state of inflation, poverty, unemployment, lawlessness and load shedding”, he further said adding that it was a clear indication that workers’ rights were at the bottom of the priority list of the government which wa leading to mass dissention, anger and rage among the working class. ASDP Director Amina Zaman said a lot of global changes had been witnessed in the realm of labour rights since the inception of the Labour Day movement but the social landscape of Pakistan was painting a thorny picture of industrial and agriculture labour communities who were living in an endless pain and misery.
The dark night of pain, poverty and helplessness had extended into years and decades with no signs of retreat in sight, she said and added that the labour being a basic unit of production had been misused merely as one of the means of production hired by the employer. Shazia George said a large number of workers had been deprived of their livelihood as power outages had caused the closure of numerous industrial units.
She added that indifference on part of the government was allowing the powerful employers to force the workers to work in pathetic conditions. She further said in this scenario, the labourers especially women workers suffered discrimination in terms of low wages, long working hours and harassment at the workplace in Pakistan. Sajid Iqbal Safdar said the state was responsible for providing equal rights to its citizens irrespective of any discrimination on the grounds of religious, sectarian and ethnic differences.
He added that any government failing to protect the rights of citizens should not be allowed to rule the nation. Arif Ayaz said the exploitation of the working class must be ended by the abolition of all anti-labour laws because under the existing anti-labour laws, the workers were not allowed to form unions and labour inspectors. Ashiq Chaudhry demanded an end to the privatisation of the national institutes and urged the government to grant a bailout package to cover the heavy deficit of the railways.
At the end of the forum, all the participants unanimously passed a resolution demanding the following steps: 1- The government should ratify ILO convention 177 for the protection of rights of home based workers and should ensure proper implementation of already ratified ILO convention 100 for the protection of rights of working women engaged in informal sectors. 2- Women should be protected against sexual harassment at workplaces by making the women-friendly environment.
3- Proper implementation of existing labour laws, fully protecting the interest and welfare of the workers, must be ensured. 4- IRA 2010 and other anti-labour laws should be repealed and new pro-labour policies and laws must be framed in accordance with the ILO conventions. 5- Minimum salary level of workers must be increased and an effective policy should be formed for poverty reduction in the country.
6- Privatisation of state institutes must be stopped, ban on labour inspections must be lifted and home-based workers, peasant workers and domestic workers should be recognised legally as part of the labour force and should be given equal share in trade unions. 7- Proper steps should be taken to ensure facilities for labourers such as: social security, pension, old age benefits and free medical in all industrial units especially power looms factories and brick kilns.
