A large number of women workers are involved in the informal sector and struggle hard to earn sustenance for their families, while making a major contribution to the national economy, despite which no legislation exists to cater to them.
Despite all this, it is unfortunate that they are neither recognised as workers nor covered under the country’s labour laws. Therefore, it is imperative that the government shall legislate in this regard without delay and formally own Home Based Workers (HBWs), Domestic Workers (DWs), factory workers and other women workers employed in different sectors of the informal economy. It shall also determine the minimum wages for DWs, define terms of their employment and ratify the ILO Convention C-189 that talks about their rights
These observations were made at the One-day National Consultation on “Taking Forward the Policy Recommendations for Women Workers” held at Hotel Shalimar Tower, Jail Road, Lahore on Thursday (August 6). The event was organised under the auspices of HomeNet Pakistan with the support of USAID and Aurat Foundation under its Gender Equity Program (GEP). Javed Pasha, Senior Program Officer, HomeNet Pakistan welcomed the participants and delivered the opening remarks. He dwelled at length on the obectives of the grant opening meeting and introduced the panelists and speakers to the participants.
Husna Cheema from USAID explained the objectives of GEP and told the audience that the initiative was aimed at increasing women’s access to justice, empowerment of women at home and workplace, combating gender-based violence and building capacities of civil society organizations (CSOs) who work for women’s rights. The consultation, she said, was an activity supported under the Grant Cycle 7 A of GEP that focussed on awareness-raising and policy advocacy on women’s rights and labour laws for women workers.
The event was also attended by officials from labour departments of all the four provinces, sub-grantees of GEP, women parliamentarians from Punjab Assembly, representatives of GEP, labour leaders, a large number of women workers from the informal sector, media personnel and others.
Balochistan, Additional Secretary Labour, Gul Muhammad said that their department was ready to provide all out support to the informal sector workers in the province. He said they had issued a notification and formed a task force that would make a policy for informal workers and invited members from both the public and private sector to become its members. He asked Home Net Pakistan to provide its support to the department which he said was amending and revising existing labour laws to make them worker-friendly.
Sindh Director Labour, Gulfam Nabi Memon, shared it with the participants that in Sindh they had drafted a policy and law for HBWs and forwarded it to Sindh Assembly for approval. Besides, he said the workers in the agriculture and fisheries department had been granted the right of association and women given a share in leadership of a trade union according to their representation in a particular organisation. He said they had decided not to register a union which does not have women members in it.
Punjab Women Development Department (WDD) Secretary, Aamina Imam, told the participants that it was Punjab that took the lead in taking initiates for the betterment of women and felt proud to be a part of it. She said the WDD staff was committed to the cause and performed its duties with a religious zeal. She said they felt privileged for being selected to do something for the oppressed people and earn blessings of Almighty Allah.
Aamina said she had taken charge recently and needed support of the organisations which had been working in this field for long. She said organisations like HomeNet Pakistan could provide them support as well as guide them in identifying and solving issues of women workers.
Punjab Provincial Ombudsman, Farkhanda Waseem, Akhtar, said that many women workers did not know about the forums available for redressal of their complaints regarding sexual harassment at workplace. She explained the processes that they could follow in such case and offered all out support to them. Farkhanda said they had taken decisions against many accused who were quite influential and not succumbed to pressure of any type.