LAHORE: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) held a meeting at a local hotel on Monday where Francesco d’Ovidio, the country director of ILO in Pakistan, discussed issues with other stakeholders in the labour sector, including union leaders from all areas, and employers.

Francesco, who has served as ILO country director for four years, has now completed his tenure and is moving to Jakarta. But before leaving he expressed his desire to consult with stakeholders in the labour sector about all the positive development in Pakistan as well as issues that he and his team had faced.

Talking to Dawn exclusively, Francesco said there were several issues facing the labour sector in Pakistan, but the biggest improvement that he had seen during his time here was the increase in political will, especially in Punjab, to progress and develop the sector. Pakistan ratified 36 conventions, he said, but it was implementation where the government lagged behind mostly.

“Punjab has reformed labour laws and that has been a big thing since after the 18th Amendment. Thirteen of the federal labour laws were given to the province which were adapted promptly,” he said. “Today, in Pakistan unions can be formed and there are not many countries where, for example, a home-based workers’ union has been established, so that is also a big step.”

He further said laws had also invited social dialogue and the input given by civil society had also been integral to bringing about any change.

“Forty-five per cent of employment in the country is in the agriculture sector,” he said. “The ILO is planning to now introduce a scheme where we must help in formalising the informal sector because this is another important change that must be brought about.”

Another issue, he said, was a lack of labour inspectors who could work in the field and monitor working conditions and whether labour rights were being given.

“Unfortunately, in the entire country where 60 million workers have been registered, there are only 336 labour inspectors and only three of them are women,” he revealed.

“We are starting a new programme that can modernise the system where we can bring in our own inspectors as we cannot wait for the government to spend more time in hiring inspectors on their own,” he said.

He praised the Punjab government’s efforts in trying to implement labour laws, especially Punjab Labour Minister Raja Ashfaq, who he said had been extremely helpful.

“The Punjab government has also started a commendable job on eradicating child labour. In Sialkot, thanks to a monitoring programme, especially in the carpet weaving sector, surgical instruments manufacturing industry and the football making industry, child labour has been eradicated and this is a huge development.”

Caroline Bates a labour lawyer also associated with ILO said they were starting to work on a minimum wage programme with initial focus on the textile and garment sector.

“We did a lot of research and found out that comparing legal framework to ground realities there were a lot of differences,” she said.

Shaukat Ali, general secretary of Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz, highlighted that labour courts should not fall under the Ministry of Law as governments often ended up influencing court decisions. The ministry should only have authority to regularise a union, not de-regularise it.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd , 2015

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