ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: The existing charter of duties of the ministry of labour and manpower needs to be reviewed through a consultative process to make it worker-friendly.

This was one of the recommendations made at the concluding ceremony of a two-day national seminar on "Issues and Strategies of Labour Welfare in Pakistan" organised by Pakistan Manpower Institute (PMI) here on Wednesday.

The seminar with 30 participants from private and public sector also recommended the setting up of a National Human Resource Development/Management University at Islamabad under the administrative control of ministry, through a joint venture of Workers Welfare Fund (WWF), Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) and Employees Old Age Benefit Institute (EOBI).

The participants were distributed among two groups - 15 each - who in the end made these recommendations. The participants also reached the consensus that keeping in view the national priorities, various labour laws and policies be reviewed under the light of conditionalities of World Trade Organization (WTO), South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) conventions.

The WWF pays death grant to the workers in case of work related deaths, provided that the worker is registered under the social security or with the EOBI. In case of mine workers; the social security act is not applicable and coverage of EOBI to mine workers is limited. Thus workers or their legal heirs are unable to claim their legitimate right. Hence, it is recommended that death grant by WWF to the mine workers be made on the basis of collateral evidence, they recommended.

Likewise, the scope of existing social security services needs to be enlarged and contingencies like unemployment benefits and family allowance be added, said one of the recommendations.

The participants were also of the view that the existing social security schemes/programmes being run by various institutions at federal and provincial level such as WWF, Social Security Scheme, EOBI be merged into a single institution for pooling of resources and curtailing administrative cost with improved services.

The staff engaged in the delivery of the social security services needs to be properly improved and upgraded to bring them in conformity with the ILO standards and other international instruments. They also recommended that the labour policy of the government should more focus on social safety net as a major policy measures of the government and updated labour policy may be announced every year.

In another recommendation, the participants said the industrial and commercial establishments should be made responsible to provide social/labour welfare services to their workers over and above being provided by the government organizations under various labour laws.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Labour and Manpower Abdul Sattar Laleka said over the last one year 64 per cent increase had been observed in the overseas employment.

In response to one of the recommendations that the ministry should be renamed as ministry of human resource development, management and welfare of labour, the minister said he would put this proposal before the next cabinet meeting.

He said in the past due to unwanted political interference in the overseas employment related issues, Pakistan had lost a significant market abroad. However, things are moving in the right direction at present.