It was a red letter day in the history of industrial relations in Pakistan when a National Industrial Relations and Provincial Tripartite Labour Convention was organizedon 19th and 20th May 2016 by Employers' Federation of Pakistan in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The objective was to develop the guidelines for an employment, productivity and welfare oriented labour policy with a national understanding and common thinking among tripartite plus stakeholders so that a harmonious approach may be developed at the provincial levels with a business case for economic growth and decent work in the post devolution phase afterthe 18th Constitutional Amendment.
It may be worth mentioning that in Pakistan's chequered history of more than six decades, four labour policies were announced in the first twenty five years, the first two (those of 1955 and 1958) of which were tilted towards the employers, the third policy (1969) tried tointroduce bilateralism while the fourth one (1972) was tilted towards workers. None of the four labour policies could find time and space for being objectively practised to get desired results and became victims of political and quasi political expediencies.
It was after the lapse of twenty five years that a fifth labour policy was announced in 2002 which was considered to be a balanced labour policy developed with the consensus of employers and workers. The last labour policy was announced by Mr Yousuf Raza Gilani in the year 2010 which could not see the light of the day because of the devolution of power to the provinces as a result of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
Although, about 6 years have lapsed to the adoption of 18th Constitutional Amendment and devolution of the labour to the provinces, none of the provinces have come forward with a labour policy which could serve as a guideline for employers and business to look forward for guidance in terms of the Government policy on employment generation, productivity, improvement and economic growth.
In this background, the initiatives of the Employers' Federation of Pakistan in convening the National Industrial Relations and Provincial Tripartite Labour Convention on Post Devolution Labour Reforms and their Impact on Business Sustainability was surely a timely and much needed initiative appreciated by theTripartite Constituents and other stakeholders.
The two-day Event comprised of an Inaugural Session andfour Business Sessions on the first day and two Business Sessions and a closing session on the second day. Each of the six Business Sessions had a given theme and was structured in the true spirit of tripartism in such a way that each session was chaired by a government representative, co-chaired by an academia representative. An employer representative was a key-note speaker on the theme of the session and there was a co-speaker from the workers representative to comment on the key-note address.
Thetwo-day Convention was attended by around 200 delegates and guests comprising of representatives from business organisations and employers, the workers organisations, government representatives, academia, representatives of agricultural employers' associations and agricultural workers union, home-based workers Federation, etc, besides representatives from the ILO Delhi Office and Country Office Islamabad and DECP.
On the first day, the inaugural session was addressed by Mr Khawaja Muhammad Nauman, President, Employers' Federation of Pakistan, Ms Ingrid Christensen, ILO County Office Islamabad, Mr Zahoor Awan, General Secretary PWF, Mr Ravindra Peiris, Senior SpecialistEmployers Activities ILO DWT South Asia, New Delhi, India, Ms Eva Majurin of ILO New Delhi India. The inaugural session was also addressed by the presence of Guests of Honours, Mr Aasim Tiwana, Director Policy, Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan and Mr Alamgir Shah, Secretary Labour, Government of KPK and Chief Guest Mr Abdul Rasheed Solangi, Secretary Labour, Government of Sindh.
The Employers' Federation of Pakistan also invited nominations from companies with Best IR Practices for consideration of EFP Award of Excellence in IR Practices on this occasion. The ten nominations were considered by an Evaluation Committee and based on their recommendations, the following awards were also conferred in the inaugural session of the Convention:-
1. Grand recognition IR Practices Awardwas given to Hinopak Motors Limited on overall Best IR Practices.
2. Recognition of IR Practices Award was given to Bayer Pakistan for Best Benefits Impact,to Lotte Chemicals for Best Practices at the Workplace and to Agriautos for Employee Engagement.
3. Emerging IR Practice Award was also given to Ayesha Fabrics for adopting Social Dialogue Approach in IR.
The Themes of the SixBusiness Sessions were:-
1. Framework for a Federal / Provincial Labour Policy and the Deterrents identified in the EFP's IR Research on Differences Between Provincial Labour Laws in Post Devolution Phase.
2. Essentials of Labour Laws which should be common to all provinces and trans-Provincial enterprises.
3. Gender Mainstreaming & Women Empowerment.
4. Employment, production, productivity and decent work oriented Labour laws & Policies compatible with the demands of socio - economic and environmental Sustainability.
5. Identifying gaps between Labour legislation in Pakistan and the International Labour Conventions, particularly the Core ILS ratified by Pakistan.
6. Importance of MNEs Declaration in the context of business sustainability.
In Business Session relating to Gender Mainstreaming and Women Empowerment, the audience was invited to sign Affirmative Leadership Statement on Gender Equality Policy which received a good instant response. Around 25 participants returned their signed statements whereas others promised to sign them after consultation with their organisations.
At the conclusion of the Convention, Mr Khawaja Muhammad Nauman, President, Employers' Federation of Pakistan, presented the draft proposal for Labour Policy Guidelines as well as the draft proposal for Policy Guidelines to combat labour market implications of climate change while Mr Karamat Ali of PILER presented a resolution expressing serious concern on rampant corruption in SESSI and other labour welfare agencies demanding that the management of these organisations should be handed over to the Joint control of employers and workers. These proposals were placed before the house for adoption and were unanimously approved by the house with a show of hands.
In a personal note, I can safely claim that this Tripartite Labour Convention was a Conference with a difference. In my professional IR career, I have the privilege of attending over a dozen tripartite labour conferences organised by the government in six decades, the lastbeing the one in the year 2010. Each of these events were marked by exchange of heated arguments, debates and blames between workers and employers and they mostly ended up in a big fiasco. It was, however, refreshing to observe that a drastic change has taken place in the attitude of the tripartite partners, particularly those of employers and workers towards each other. It was also remarkably visible to observe the government playing the facilitator's role. This is a positive development in the industrial relations' history of Pakistan which may have emerged from a mixture of pessimism and optimism of the last six decades of interaction between them.
Let there be a hope that the Federal and Provincial governments take a lead from the proceedings of this Convention and soon convene Tripartite Labour Conferences at the Provincial and all Federal levels to benefit from the consensus on drawing a employment, productivity and welfare oriented labour policy which may define the future growth of business with global competitiveness, the benefits of which can be shared by the employers and workers equally.