KARACHI: IRO-2002 against ILO conventions, say experts
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 17: Speakers at a meeting on Saturday condemned the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO)-2002, and observed that it had taken away many of the benefits and protections that were available to workers for the past many decades.
They were speaking at the meeting, organized by the All- Pakistan Trade Unions Congress to discuss the IRO-2002. Senior labour leader S. P. Lodhi and a former judge of the Sindh High Court Justice (retd) M. L. Shahani spoke.
They said some of the provisions were even against some of the conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that had been ratified by Pakistan and it was bound to make all the relevant local laws in accordance with these international agreements.
They said that the ILO had also been expressing concern over such provisions and had asked the government to do the needful.
They said there was a legal flaw in the IRO-2002 as being an ordinance it had to be presented before the parliament within four months and as it has not been done so, it had lapsed.
Another point was that the president promulgated the ordinance on Oct 26, 2002, which was after the expiry of the the three-year time term given to him by the Supreme Court, so the president had no authority to promulgate the ordinance.
They said besides when the national assembly had been elected, there was no ground to make laws through the ordinances on such important issues.
They claimed that the IRO-2002, which was an employer-friendly law, had been promulgated on the directions of the international financial institutions and developed countries who wanted to cripple workers.
They criticized the government for not accommodating the recommendations given by the Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan (WEBCOP) while making the IRO-2002. They said under the IRO-2002, trade union activities would not be possible in a large number of organizations.
Citing some of the examples in which rights or workers had been curtailed, they said under the IRO-2002, powers of the courts to reinstate workers have been curtailed.
Now courts can only order payment of salary of a few months which the employers can do very easily and happily.
They said earlier the courts were able to send employers to prisons, which was a serious deterrent, but now only fine up to Rs 50,000 could be imposed.
They said at the same time, if the court imposed a fine of even Rs 20,000 on a worker, he probably would have to be sent to the prison as workers usually did not have any money.
They said the registration process of the unions had been made so cumbersome that it would be very difficult for genuine trade unions to get themselves registered while the management-sponsored or pocket unions would be easily registered.
They said the tenure of the CBA has been extended from two years to three years.
They said earlier the CBA had a right and it could ask the management to get its accounts re-audited. The union had a right to give a panel of auditors out of which one was chosen by the government for re-audit.
They said this right, which was a blow to managements, had been taken away under the IRO-2002.
They said the powers of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) have also been curtailed.
They said apart from this, certain other anti-worker laws, like certain amendments to the Civil Servants Act and the Banking Companies Ordinance, had also been used by the managements to victimize the workers effectively.
They urged the workers to join hands, forge unity and get ready for a long struggle to get this employer-friendly and anti- worker IRO abolished.
They said an action committee had been formed to formulate a strategy against the IRO-2002. They said the action committee had approached the government which had shown its willingness to start a dialogue, but talks are yet to be initiated.
They said the committee was also in contact with the opposition parties some of which have ensured workers that once the LFO issue was settled, the IRO-2002 would be taken up in the parliament.
Habibuddin Junaidi, Salim Raza, Shaikh Majeed, Haji Yunus, Shaukat Ali of APTUC and other trade union leaders also asked questions from both the speakers.
