KARACHI: At the conclusion of a three-day protest camp held at Karachi Press Club against the contractual system, jointly organised by the National Trade Union Federation Pakistan (NTUF) and Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF), labour leaders reminded that the Supreme Court of Pakistan have recognised permanent employment as a fundamental right for workers.

The rally was led by Riaz Abbasi of the National Trade Union Federation and Zehra Khan of Home Based Women Workers Federation.

Nasir Mansoor of NTUF addressing the rally said that capitalists view permanent employment as a burden on the organisation and perceive the associated rights as obstacles to profit, industrial development and investment. He said that every government and its institutions, particularly the labour department, had played a negative role in imposing the contractual system with the support of capitalists.

Comrade Usman Baloch said that currently the majority of the 80 million workforces were employed under some form of the contract system, which had driven their families below the poverty line. Due to this, 95% of workers were deprived of written appointment letters, social security, pensions, minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, paid weekly holidays, annual leave, gratuity, and bonuses.

Asad Iqbal But of HRCP stressed that the contracting system had turned workers into machines generating wealth without any rights. Workplaces had become confinement due to that system, forcing workers to work like slaves, with no fixed end to their workday.

Zehra Khan of HBWWF said that the capitalists and government institutions had long been conspiring to provide legal protection to the contracting system. She said that capitalists and states were jointly determined to remove all obstacles to profit by transforming the production process from formal to informal through a contractual system.