Metro contractors employing underage labourers, denying labour rights to adults in a bid to complete project in time
The management of construction of Metro Bus Service (MBS) in twin cities of Islamabad is allegedly violating Pakistan Labour Policy and International Child Rights in the name of timely completion of the project, Pakistan Today has observed.
The labourers are being made to work for more hours per day and per week against the Labour Policy provisions and are being kept in unhealthy living conditions during harsh winter days.
Most of the labourers working on the project are working for 12 hours per day, some of them even for 16 hours, violating the allowed maximum limit of 8 hours per day according to the labour laws. Moreover, labourers are not allowed a weekly leave by the management.
Furthermore, the MBS management has employed dozens of 14 to 15 years old children to work on construction against the Labour Policy 2010 which prohibits employment of children between ages 14-18 to work as labourers.
Pakistan Labour Policy 2010 (20) states, “Workers between the ages of 14 and less than 18 years will not be engaged in hazardous working conditions and other working environments that adversely affect their physical and moral development.”
The Labour Policy further states, “Children and young people will be withdrawn and prevented from hazardous nature as, for example, mining, tanneries, brick kilns, construction and glass bangles etc. Special programmers will be designed to focus young domestic workers employed in private households. Payment of minimum wage will also be ensured to the young persons.”
Muhammad Aslam, a labourer working on MBS, who hails from Layyah, told Pakistan Today that he is 14 years old and did not possess a National Identity Card.
“I am working on this project for the last 4 months and I don’t know whether my working here is legal or illegal as I am only concerned about the pay that I get from working here,” Aslam said.
“My father wanted me to get education but I was not good at studies. My father sent me here with my uncle who was already working on Metro who got me the job with his contractor,” Aslam further told.
Irony is that not only the underage children are being employed against the rules but they are also underpaid, Pakistan Today has further learnt.
Another minor labourer, Mustafa, a Kabir Wala resident, told Pakistan Today that he was being paid only 300 per day as compared to other adults who were getting more than him.
“If I demand the same pay as that of adult labourers then my contractor threatens me to sack me as I am underage and not eligible to work on this project. His threat makes me keep quite as I do not want to lose my job,” Mustafa said.
A number of labourers told this scribe that their monthly salary had been held for last one month and a half as the contractors wanted them to wait until the opening of the project.
A ZKB Construction Company’s site engineer working on the Peshawar Mor Section of the MBS admitted that most of the labourers are working for 12 hours per day but he also said that he was not aware of any law which prohibits working hours of more than eight hours per day.
Another contractor working for Lemark Reliable, a construction company involved in the project, confirmed that few children are being employed in order to increase the labour force to meet the deadline.
Multi-billion rupee project of MBS was started in February last year with much pomp and show and former PML-N MNA and MBS Administrator Hanif Abbasi has repeatedly claimed that the MBS will start working from January 31 this year.
However, according to engineers working on the site, it was impossible to finish the project on January 30 as around 25 percent work on the project was still remaining.
“I do not see this work getting completed before March 23 because of certain delays at the start of the project,” a ZKB engineer told Pakistan Today.
In the meanwhile, Hanif Abbasi denied commenting on the situation, saying that he was “busy somewhere”.
