'Trade, Compliance of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains' launched

The speakers at the launch of 'Trade and Compliance of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains: A case Study of Pakistan,' urged the government to ensure implementation on the international labour laws to protect workers' rights. The event was jointly organized by Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) where managing director SPDC Khalida Ghaus and economist Manzoor Hussain Memon gave detailed presentations on the topic. They also put forward a set of recommendations for sorting out the labour-related issues in the country.
They said that as far as the compliance with international labour standards is concerned, Pakistan rated fairly high on ratification of conventions and enactment of domestic legislation, though some significant legislative gaps regarding labour standards still remained that included lack of conformity with ratified conventions, laws on anti-discrimination, and occupational safety and health. They said that a major reason for ineffective implementation of laws is that the bulk of the industrial units operate as part of the informal economy.
"In the context of GSP+, there have been some initial signs of a positive response from the government on the legislation related to social clauses. Yet, almost four years into the scheme, concrete improvements in the implementation of the required reforms and regulations are still missing," said Manzoor Memon, adding that lack of political will at the federal level seemed to engender lack of capacity at the provincial level. He said that trilateral bodies are often hampered by lack of trust when government and employer's representatives collude in defending the status quo at the cost of violating workers' rights-the implementation of which is a constituent part of the agreed system of trade preferences.
Meanwhile, the study proposed that there is a need for a serious review of labour laws, particularly in the aftermath of the l8th Constitutional Amendment and emerging requirements of trade liberalization. The review of the legislative framework needs to be in the form of a continuous process embedded in the changing social, political and economic conditions both in the domestic and international arena.
It said that the strengthening of the enforcement machinery of relevant government departments, with special focus on labour administration and social security, by way of enhancing human, financial and infrastructural resources, is essential for the effective implementation of labour laws.
In view of the increased compliance responsibilities, and the implementation of an increased number of laws and international conventions, the study suggested to undertake an in-depth institutional assessment of relevant departments/organizations focusing on capacity enhancement in accordance with a training personnel to use technology; bringing labour courts into the mainstream judicial system; digitization and computerization of records; and coordination among the various regulatory authorities and centralization of the industrial database.
There is a need to integrate the inspection system with 'one general inspector' performing inspections in all work areas of an enterprise. For this purpose, a separate labour inspection authority may be established representing all the relevant departments/institutions.
It proposed that as a first step, the coverage of social security institutions should be expanded to the informal sector including home-based workers. Currently, initiatives such as the EOBI cover the formal sector only, whereas a majority of the poor workers are engaged in the informal sector and have unstable sources of income. Therefore, interventions related to social security and old-age benefits for temporary and daily-wage employment need to be developed and implemented.
The federal and provincial Industrial Relations Acts need to be reformed to bring them into conformity with the relevant ILO standards, such as amending the requirements for the registration of unions. The pre-condition of having 20 per cent of total workers on board for registration of a third trade union in an establishment should be removed.
The study stressed need to establish representative offices of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) in all the provinces so that the stakeholders do not have to travel to the federal capital for matters related to disputes.
Vice Chairman SPDC Javed Jabbar, country director FES Islamabad Rolf Paasch and chairman of Employers' Federation of Pakistan (EFP) Fasihul Karim Siddiqi were among those others who also spoke.