Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh General Secretary Taj Haider has welcomed the Supreme Court (SC) judgment in Fauji Fertilizers case which holds that workers of a unit, whether appointed directly or through a contractor, would be treated as bonafide workers of the unit.
“This historic judgment of the SC strengthens our basic commitment made in the PPP manifesto 2013 that all wage earners of a unit will be treated as bona fide workers of that unit,” Haider said while commenting on the judgment.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Haider said that the contract system of appointments had only filled up the pockets of contractors and middlemen did not contribute to the production phase. It had only deprived the genuine workers of fair returns for their work. The system was counter-productive, immoral and in contravention of the ILO conventions that the country had signed.
Haider reminded that the PPP government had provided for many legal benefits like EOBI pensions, social security, workers’ welfare fund, housing, medical facilities, education, disability pensions, disability grants, and marriage grants for children of all bonafide workers.
All these facilities were to be provided by state Institutions at the provincial level without any sort of burden on the factory owners.
It was a tragedy that hundreds of thousands of workers could not avail these facilities although more than 150 billion in funds were lying unutilised in EOBI and WWF. The only hurdle in the way was non-recognition of these workers as bona fide workers.
At the same time the collections in EOBI and WWF could increase manifold if only a small fraction of the money pocketed by middlemen was legally deposited with these institutions as the contribution of workers and factory owners. The sooner the illegal contract system was abolished, the better for workers and factory owners both.
Haider further said that the industrial sector could not be modernized unless the ILO conventions were followed in letter and spirit. So much of human effort and financial resources were being wasted in conflicts which were entirely needless. If a positive attitude was adopted and workers were treated as “partners in production”, not only the needless conflict would subside but significant improvement could be brought in quality, product value, exports and wages, he added.
