Baldia Factory Fire incident: Labour bodies blame federal ministry for intentional delay in payments

KARACHI: The leaders of labour and civil society organisations on Thursday expressed serious concern over bureaucratic hurdles created by the Federal Ministry of Overseas and Human Resource Development which were delaying payments of pension to the victims’ families of Baldia Factory Fire incident.

Addressing a joint press conference, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Executive Director Karamat Ali, flanked by National Trade Unions Federation Deputy General Secretary Nasir Mansoor, Ms. Saeeda Khatoon, Chairperson, Ali Enterprise Fatory Fire Affectees Association; Habibuddin Junaidi, Convener, Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee, Ms Zehra Khan, General Secretary, Home-Based Women Workers Federation, Aziz Bhai, General Secretary, Affected Families Association and Abdul Rauf, General Secretary, Muttahida Labour Federation (MLF), demanded the release of funds to the Sindh Employees Social Security Institutions (SESSI) for payment of pensions to the affected families.

“We call upon the prime minister to take stern action against the responsible bureaucrats in the ministry who are creating hurdles in payments of pension to the victims’ families,” said Karamat Ali. He gave a three-day ultimatum to the federal government to resolve the issue, otherwise, a protests would be organised across the country.

Karamat Ali explained the process and said that the German textile buyer KIK Textillien had provided $5.15 million via International Labour Organisation (ILO) for pension to the affected families under an agreement and after determination of the pension’s payment mechanism, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (ILO) with Sindh government for the payment.

In December 2016 the German company KIK transferred $ 5.15 million in the accounts of ILO in Geneva. ILO took about one year to determine the amount of pension and the procedure for disbursement. It was decided that provincial government’s social security institution would disburse the pension, he added.

Karamat Ali said the Federal Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development suddenly woke up, otherwise, it did nothing for the welfare of the victims’ families and asked the ILO that the pension amount could not be released to Sindh government without its endorsement of the MoU. On March 28, the ILO sent the MoU to the federal government for endorsement, adding that delay tactics were being adopted by the federal government.

“We condemn the attitude of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, which has nothing to do with the labour affairs particularly when after 18th Amendment the labour is completely a provincial subject,” said Habibuddin Junaidi. He also demanded to abolish such type of ministry which was encroaching provincial affairs.

Nasir Mansoor said the affected families were facing problems and mental agony due to delay in payment of pensions. The entire process has been signed by the provincial government of Sindh and the federal ministry’s bureaucracy was sitting on the file just for endorsement for one month.

An oversight committee has already been established to supervise the pension disbursement process and in a last meeting, the members of the committee came to know that due to delay in endorsement by the federal government the payment of pension was withheld. After the press conference, the members of victims’ families staged a protest demonstration.