LAHORE, May 25: International Confederation of Free Trade Unions Director Sabur Ghayour has called for freeing economy from the shackles of the World Bank and the IMF and bringing the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 in conformity with the International Labour Organisation Conventions.

Speaking at a meeting of the Pakistan Workers Confederation here on Sunday, the ICFTU director said that the World Bank and the IMF were the instruments of exploitation which drained the resources of developing countries in the name of providing financial assistance for development. No country in the world had developed with the assistance of the two institutions.

He said that the government should repeal the IRO clauses in conflict with the basic trade union rights of the workers. He also called for convening the tripartite labour conference for solving the problems of the workers.

Pakistan Workers Confederation Secretary-General Khurshid Ahmed said that globalization and the World Bank and the IMF policies had deprived the workers of job security and were instrumental in increasing poverty and unemployment in the developing countries. Privatization had resulted in increase in the cost of living.

He said that unrest was growing in the working class due to continuous increase in prices of consumer goods, lack of job opportunities and denial of wage increases by the employers due to restrictions imposed on the collective bargaining by the government through IRO 2002. The workers would be left with no choice except resorting to protest in case the government failed to revise their wage structure in the next budget and restore their collective bargaining rights.