PESHAWAR: Speakers at a training workshop here on Sunday urged the government to implement labour laws in real sense and ensure provision of basic facilities to the workers.

The workshop was arranged by Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF) for labourers at a local hotel that addressed by Razim Khan, Shaukat Ali Anjum and Dr Ishaq Khan.

Dr Ishaq said that majority of the problems being faced by workers in different industrial units had been created owing to non-implementation of the international labour laws.

The trainer asked the workers to take care while performing duty to avoid any untoward incident. He said that workers should strengthen their unions so that they could raise voice effectively for their rights, especially against delay in payment of salaries and low wages.

Dr Ishaq said that one of the main causes of the increasing problems was negligence by the officials of labour department. The worst affected, he said, were women and juvenile workers. He said that women workers were not granted maternal leave.

Speaking on the occasion, Razim Khan said that employers were not ready to pay minimum wages to the workers. He also expressed his reservations over the working conditions in different industrial units. He added that industrialists were least bothered to provide healthy working environment to labourers.

Speakers at workshop advise workers to strengthen unions

Mr Khan said that workers were not given safety kits and that’s why many of them lost lives and scores of them suffered fatal injuries. He said that the affected workers were not compensated in accordance with international labour laws.

Mr Khan said that government and industrialists should work for revival of the sick industrial units to proved jobs to the unemployed skilled workers to overcome poverty.

Meanwhile, the members of PWD Labour Union of communication and works department held a protest demonstration at Bacha Khan Chowk Peshawar on Sunday against what they called the corrupt officials in the department.

They demanded of National Accountability Bureau to launch inquiries against officials working on key posts.

Representatives of union Malik Nisar Khan, Mukhtiar Hussain, Abdul Salam, Momin Khan and Farhatullah spoke on the occasion. They said that in some areas labour unions and high ranking officials were hand in glove to exploit workers but no one was there to hold them accountable.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2017