MAJOR changes on the labour policy, now on the anvil, are geared to respond to the global competitiveness, achieve social compliance, produce high grade manpower and improve productivity.

The government, labour and employers are on board in overhauling the Labour Policy-2002. This is to be achieved through new legislation which was delayed because of slow moving process of tripartite consensus.

Multi-facetted laws, governing various aspects of labour-employers-productivity-welfare -– have been simplified and the 37 laws have been merged as to form only five laws.

“The new laws, grouped under five heads, will effectively deal with workers’ demands and are balanced with the employers’ interests, high growth requirements of the economy, realities of globalization-WTO, and reflect deployment of modern technology,” Malik Asif Hayat, Secretary, Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, told Dawn.

“Currently there are a number of labour laws and regulations covering a variety of subjects which relate to industrial relations. Most of them are complex and overlapping in scope and content” the Labour Policy has stated.

It had proposed their merger into new a legislation, grouped under six categories: (1) industrial relations, (2) employment conditions, (3) wages, (4) human resource development (HRD), (5) occupational safety ad health, and (6) labour welfare and social safety net. Now these six have been reduced to five by merging the 1 and the 2, says Mr. Hayat.

The proposed legislation on ‘employment conditions and wages’ which contains 10 existing laws grouped together is with the Law Ministry for vetting. . The focus of the new law will be on:(a) meeting challenges of globalization-WTO, (b) maximum job creation, (c) workers and employers to abide by laws, (d) high grade skill development, (e) boosting productivity, (f) growth of industry and economy, (g) social compliance, and (h) implementation of ILO conventions to which Pakistan is a signatory.

Prime Minister Shukat Aziz, also asked the ministry of labour Last month to prepare contract workers’ employment bill for ensuring a balanced policy that will protect workers’ rights, and provide relief to employers. Workers paid on piece basis will be protected under a written agreement with the employer and between workers and contractors. The contractors will be licensed to hire workers and to safeguard the labour interests.

A number of industries, including garments, employ workers on piece basis. The system helps employers to increase production and fill export orders, while efficient workers can earn more than those employed on fixed wages or a salary. But, the government will ensure that contract workers are not exploited and no “sweat shops” are created.

Mr. Hayat also said: “the government places a top priority on the high quality upgrading of technical skills and HRD. The labour demands better skills and employers support it, especially those in the export field, for manufacturing quality products. Employers are, in fact, already paying good wages to highly skilled manpower.”   Pakistan faces a big skill-deficit. Most industries, and the economy in general, are suffering because of this. The government has therefore decided to establish a federal “national training and vocational education authority” (NTVEA), through an ordinance.

The authority will lay down, (1) skill standards, (2) prepare syllabi for various courses, trades and occupations, (3) undertake national registration and arrange accreditation with foreign institutions, and manpower importing countries, that recognize and certify skills and standards. It will enlarge export of Pakistani manpower.

Foreign institutions that accept such accreditation already are operating in US, Europe and Japan and in developing countries like Malaysia, and Philippines. The NTVEA may be likened to Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) that registers and issues licenses to doctors and dentists for undertaking practice, and accredits universities, colleges and institutions.

The government also wants to remove the dichotomy that exists for decades. The vocational training was undertaken by ministry of labour (MoL) while the technical education ( for instance, running poly-technic schools) was in the purview of ministry of education (MoE).

Several institutions dealing with these two tasks were established between 1960s and 1999. In 1999, international funding for this purpose dried up, and the skill deficit, already serious, got widened. The government realizes the need for re-skilling, re-training and upgrading skills in line with new technology and processes that have emerged in the world, and parts of which have entered the Pakistani economy.

But all the vocational institutions combined together have a capacity to produce only 142,000 persons annually in various trades. These institutions will have to provide skills in 100 or more trades to meet the standards set for various products meant for foreign and domestic markets. It is the essential ingredient of value-addition in anything from garments to sports gear and leather products.

Some of the industries, mainly in the export field, like garments in Karachi, Chenone in Faisalabad and sports goods in Sialkot, have made substantial investment in modern technology. They also pay reasonable wages because high skilled workers are in a position to bargain.

Women workers: After years of gender-based discrimination in wages, women workers are also getting a better deal, although more efforts are still needed in this area. “ I have seen quite a favourable contracts for workers concluded with employers by a Karachi union, all office-bearers of which are women,” Hayat says while pointing out to improving gender equality and implementation of the ILO’s Convention 100.

A new legislation will focus on eliminating gender discrimination and provide equal opportunity to women. The work place will be made conducive for them, he adds.

The ILO convention 182 prohibits and eliminates the worst form of child labour. It describes a child as one who is below the age of 18. Pakistan is working on its implementation but still more efforts are required.

The Industrial relations Ordenance-2002 (IRO) is also being amended and the ministry of law is vetting its draft. The MoL was asked by ministries of commerce, industry and textiles to amend the IRO in the light of ILO conventions and to ensure social compliance under SA-8000. It will help workers and employers to overcome objections of foreign importers on account of lack of social compliance.

As such, it will also encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) by overcoming investors’ objections. The amended IRO will allow labour to work daily up three hours more on overtime payment, after performing an eight hour duty and an hour’s rest. In view of an acute shortage of highly skilled workers, employers wanted permission for longer overtime hours, while workers wished to earn additional wages.

The present law permits only 152 hours of over time (OT) work in a year. It comes to about half an hour per day. Now the workers will be permitted to work 936 hours in a year as OT, in addition to their daily eight hour shift, and an hour’s rest in between.

The restriction on overtime restrains exports, an official says. Amendments will allow women to work up to 10 p.m., rather than up to seven p.m. It will help two-shift industries to fill their export orders on schedule.

The government, however, has made it mandatory and the employers have agreed to provide transport to drop women workers back at their homes after 10 p.m. shift. On this, the feedback to the government is: both labour and employers are happy with arrangement which will ensure female workers’ safety. The laws on the anvil, seem to be balanced, helpful to workers and pro-growth. But, a proper, government-level, oversight of their implementation alone will prove their worth.