KARACHI, March 31: Textile workers on Friday demanded that their wages, which had not been revised for over a decade now, be increased immediately and women workers be given similar wages.
Speaking at a press conference at the Press Club, the leaders of Pakistan Textile Workers Union said that over seven million workers, almost 50 per cent of them being women, were involved in textile sector but they were not being given their due rights.
The union leaders – Sohail Raza, Mian Qayyum, Rehana Yasmeen, and others — said that despite ever increasing inflation the salaries of the workers had not been revised for the last decade owing to which they were facing serious economic crisis.
They said that the situation of women workers was even worse as they had to work for long hours for which they were paid even less than men for the similar work. Many women had to work in night shift and many others faced sexual harassment, they alleged.
They said that owing to the social taboo, majority of the women workers did not raise their voice against the sexual harassment, and only a very few were brave enough to stand up and challenge the culprits. They said that with their assistance approximately 20 women workers in textile centres of Sindh and Punjab had registered the FIRs of sexual harassment at workplace. They alleged that usually the culprits were supervisors and managers.
They said that they were also trying to create network with the textile and garment workers in the neighbouring countries which also faced similar issues so that a joint platform could be formed and a joint struggle for the worker rights could be launched in the region.
The union leaders said that a meeting of workers representatives from South Asian countries would be held in the country in June.
Bangalore-based Sebastian Devraj of the Foundation for Educational Innovations in Asia said that almost 70 per cent of the garments for the western countries were sent from Asia and if the workers here joined hands they could get reasonable wages.
He said that if price of a shirt was Rs100, the labour cost was only around Rs6 in the region, while in a western country the labour cost would be Rs68. He said that if 20 per cent of the wages were enhanced the labour cost would increase from Rs6 to Rs8, and the shirt’s cost would increase from Rs100 to Rs102.
Abul Hassan of the Bangladesh Textile Federation said that though there were many laws to protect worker rights in his country, the implementation was very poor and as a result the workers suffered.
