KARACHI: Hailing the federal government’s decision of giving incentive package to the construction sector and declaring it an industry, the workers’ organisations and trade unions have asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide labourers of the construction sector with the same facilities being given to industrial workers in the country.

They demanded that construction workers were registered under various labour laws and provided social security facilities. In a statement issued here on Saturday, Karamat Ali, the executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler); Nasir Mansoor (National Trade Unions Federation); Habibuddin Junaidi (Peoples Labour Bureau); Liaqat Sahi (State Bank Democratic Workers Union); Zehra Khan (Home Based Women Workers Federation); Farhat Perveen (NOW Communities), Qamrul Hassan of IUF Pakistan, and others demanded that the existing labour laws should be mandatorily implemented on the construction industry.

They observed that various tax exemptions and other monetary benefits had been announced for the construction industry, which would boost the overall economy in the future.

Measures were taken to ensure that the benefits should trickle down to workers engaged in various sub-sectors of the construction industry, they said.

In the construction sector, occupational safety and health measures are not taken, which often result in fatal accidents, they added.

Under the Factories Act and special laws on occupation safety and health in Sindh and Punjab, the government should ensure safety of construction workers, they demanded.

“Currently workers in the construction sector are considered informal workers and they are not included in the definition of workers in many labour laws, including the law pertaining to registration of trade unions, ie Industrial Relations Act 2002.”

Although Sindh has included all workers in its industrial relations law (SIRA 2013), the labourers were not taking benefit from that law as well, they said.

“Pakistan is a signatory to various conventions under International Labour Organisation (ILO) including the mandatory eight core labour standards, so Pakistan should make the laws accordingly and construction workers be given rights of association and collective bargaining, they demanded.

“There is no record of the construction workers with the labour department so all workers should be registered with relevant institutions like social security institutions, Workers Welfare Fund and Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI).” The minimum wages law should also be applied on the construction workers and the labour department should fix minimum wages for skilled workers in the construction sector, they said.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020