The Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) completed its three decades of existence on Tuesday as one of the leading labour resource centres in the country.
PILER was founded in May 1982, starting out as an initiative of activists from trade unions movement, academics, and professionals, focusing on labour issues in response to the emerging needs of a weakened and fragmented trade unions movement and the negative impact of the state’s flawed policies on people’s livelihoods and social protection.
In the following years, PILER continued, initiating and joining hands with labour alliances and fellow citizens’ movements, to advocate for a democratic arrangement as a means for promoting spaces for workers in the political, social, constitutional, and economic orders of the state and the region.
The labour struggle in Pakistan centres as much around the premise of basic rights as it does around the state’s declining interest and concern for the working class that comprise a large majority of the population.
The total labour force of the country stands at 57.24 million, out of which 53.84 million are employed and the unemployment rate stands at 5.42 percent. The share of three major sectors in employment stand at: agriculture 21.2 percent; industry: 25.4 percent; and services: 53.4 percent.
Apart from the lack of political will on the part of the state to promote workers rights, the biggest challenge for workers is an increasingly exclusionary economy that seeks to promote the interest of the elites at the cost of the majority population of working class. Pakistan’s expanding informal sector economy that comprises 30 percent of the economy employs 73 percent of the labour force. This essentially means that three fourth of the total population of workers has no access to basic rights as no labour law in applicable to the informal sector.
The constitution of Pakistan is strong on labour rights while the state has gone an extra mile signing a number of ILO conventions, including core labour conventions to reiterate the state’s commitment to labour entitlements. The following articles of the constitution focus exclusively on labour:
– Article 11 of the constitution prohibits all forms of slavery, forced labour and child labour;
– Article 17 provides for a fundamental right to exercise the freedom of association and the right to form unions;
– Article 18 proscribes the right of its citizens to enter upon any lawful profession or occupation and to conduct any lawful trade or business;
– Article 25 lays down the right to equality before the law and prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex alone;
– Article 37(e) makes provision for securing and humane conditions of work, ensuring that children and women are not employed in vocations unsuited to their age or sex, and for maternity benefits for women in employment.
However, Pakistan stands miles behind in implementation of constitutional provisions as well as the ILO Conventions as less than 3 percent of the total workforce is unionised despite the constitutional provision (Article 17) guaranteeing the related right.
Less than 5 percent of the workers benefit from EOBI, PESSI, and WWF the social security systems run by the government, even though Article 28 of the constitution provides for social security for all citizens.
Labour inspection remains officially suspended in two provinces (Sindh and Punjab). The tripartite system (government, employees and employers annual consultation on labour issues) too remains weak as the last tripartite meeting was held in 2009 after a gap of many years while there is no information on the next. The Industrial Relations Order pursued by the government, and now by provincial governments following the constitutional reforms, is extremely exclusionary as it denies 80% of the workforce the right to unionisation. The entire agriculture sector that employs 45% of the workforce is regulated by no labour laws.
It is in this backdrop that the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research is initiating a series of activities to mark its 30 years.
Apart from PILER’s 30 years, May 1 is also celebrated as the International Labour Day. As Pakistan marks yet another labour day, it is important to revisit the occasion as a celebration of the relentless struggle put out by workers who have continued to seek a democratic course for the promotion of their rights, and the strength of the common citizens that stand resilient in the face of an increasingly narrow-based political and social space that have repeatedly sought to marginalise the non-
