Speakers at a conference "Labour Rights as Citizen Rights: Realising Constitutional Reforms" urged the need for broadening the ambit of labour laws for workers excluded from the system by way of institutional deficits or restricted legislations. The 2-day conference was organised by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) in collaboration with Sungi Development Foundation, and Muttahida Labour Federation, here on Saturday.
Ahsan-ud-Din, Minister for Labour, Punjab, Ameer Nawab, Minister for Labour, Sindh; Moulvi Ghulam Sarwar, Minister for Labour, Balochistan; Saba Gul Khattak, Member Planning Commission of Pakistan; Zafarullah Khan, Centre for Civic Education; Karamat Ali, Executive Director Piler; Gul Rehman, President Muttahida Labour Federation; Chaudhry Manzoor, President Peoples' Labour Federation; Javed Gill, Central Labour Advisor, Ministry of Labour; Zafar Iqbal Gondal, Chairman EOBI; Fareed Awan, Pakistan Workers Confederation; Haji Jawed, President Employers Federation of Pakistan and Saeed Awan from Punjab's Centre for Improvement of Working Conditions and Environment addressed to the conference.
They said 70 percent workers of fisheries, agriculture, home-based, domestic and power looms sectors were still excluded from labour laws and urged the need to bring them in the ambit of labour laws. They stressed to bring the agriculture, fisheries, home-based, and others sectors into the ambit of labour laws. They said that that unemployed and socially marginalised must also be brought in the circle of labour' legislation.
They further said that basic purpose to organise the conference was to share labour concerns and initiate debate on issues related to labour in the backdrop of the 18th Amendment, which has set the grounds for provincial autonomy and devolution.
Speakers of the conference highlighted key issues related to labour including structures of labour policy and legislation; regulations and mechanisms to ensure compliance of labour laws with constitutional rights and international conventions. They also discussed the future of social security and welfare bodies; addressing exclusion of the majority of labour from labour laws and poor implementation of a number of labour laws such as labour inspection, IRA, tripartite mechanism, minimum wages, etc. It was decided that recommendations would be drawn on the basis of observations and suggestions made on the issues.
All the stakeholders were agreed that the framework and basis of all laws and institutions should be according to ILO conventions and principles, and UN Covenant on Economic and Social Rights. The recommendations forwarded by the participants include right to unionisation should be unconditional. All workers, including agriculture, home-based workers, fisherfolk, domestic workers, and self-employed workers should have an unconditional right to unionisation.
The ambit of social protection coverage should be extended to allow universal social security. It was suggested that social security institutions should be merged whether their institutional mechanisms remain with provinces or with the federal government. All social protection services should be delivered by a single institution through a simplified universal card system.
They observed that labour courts need reforms and called the need to increase the number of labour courts to dispose of cases in three months. They demanded unemployment allowance for those who were unemployed. The state should devise a programme along the lines of 100 days employment service, on the basis of which employment should be guaranteed to each and every unemployed person on a hundred-day basis. It was demanded that no laws and institutions violating the ILO Conventions ratified by Pakistan should be pursued.
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