| Workers' rights Friday, November 28, 2008 by Harris Kahlique The first serious piece of legislation moved by the incumbent government and passed by the parliament in haste, with some members from the opposition boycotting, is the Industrial Relations Act 2008. It is now waiting to be signed off by the President of the Republic. And, what a pity, that all major federations of the trade unions in Pakistan besides the Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan (WEBCOP) have rejected the law. The opposition party, PML (N), who boycotted the proceedings that led to the passage of the bill in the national assembly, had actually passed it earlier in the senate, the upper house. Only 1.3 million out of an estimated 45 million workforce in Pakistan is unionized anyway. A lot of work has to be done in this area to not only secure worker's rights and bring sanity to some of the areas where exploitation is at its worst, but also to promote collective bargaining in accordance with the ILO conventions to which Pakistan is a signatory. Just after taking oath, the PPP-led government announced the restoration of trade unions and ensured that the rights of workers denied for too long under the previous IROs 2002 and 1969 will be realized. But according to those genuinely representing workers, what is proposed by the current law is totally contrary to these claims.
According to labour leaders from Pakistan Workers Federation, Muttahida Labor Federation and National Labor Federation who together enjoy a membership of almost all who are unionized in the country, the law is in contradiction with ILO's convention 87 and conveniently bars 30 million workers, i.e. two-thirds of the total work force in the country. Obviously, it includes two million employed in agriculture and related professions. I could see that people in trade unions are shocked because this was the least they could expect from the People's Party. Besides government services, both federal and provincial, agriculture, forestry, fishing, teaching and related professions, not just the fighting arms but all corporate institutions belonging to the military generals, retired or in-service, like DHA, civilians working for them, watch and ward staff, many government corporations including PCSIR and Printing Corporation, etc. have no right to unionise and have access to collective bargaining. On top of that, the term for an elected Collective Bargaining Agency (CBA) has been reduced to two years from three. This would have a huge impact on settlement of disputes and ability for a union elected as CBA to deliver in a short span of time. Another major problem when it comes to settlements is that the definition has been amended such that now the unions can be bypassed and an employer can work directly with workmen/women to get his way. This not only opens the possibilities of coercion but also undermines the collectivization and right to association. Moreover, WEBCOP that provides a joint forum for employers and employees had made recommendations which are ignored by the government while drafting the bill. This makes it even more interesting that while both employers and employees agree, the government doesn't. What we see generally is the government playing an arbiter between two conflicting interests. Here, it is different. For instance, definitions of terms like 'contractor', 'industry', 'trade union', 'worker and workman', etc. are agree upon between the representatives of employers and trade unions but the government has defined these terms in a lopsided fashion siding clearly with big employers and feudal agriculturists. I am all for giving protection to local entrepreneurs and industrialists through flexible duty regimes, maintaining law and order and tax rebates. But this should never happen at the cost of labor rights and denial of decent livelihood to workers. We want agriculture and industry to flourish in this country so that people can enter into a modern age with their basic necessities fulfilled and rights realized. Even the progressive industrialists and businesspersons understand that but a large part of our post-colonial bureaucracy and post-colonial politicians don't.
The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org |
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