LAHORE: Ban on inspection of factories by labour inspectors may lead to safety-related incidents like the ones the country witnessed in Karachi’s textile unit fire where 250 workers had been burnt alive back in 2012, fear labour leaders.

“The total lack of adequate safety monitoring in the industry has cost hundreds of lives. Even measures that could be put into place immediately, such as ensuring workers are never locked inside factories and removing stored product away from emergency exits, could have made a difference saving hundreds of lives in the Karachi fire and many other incidents since,” says Khalid Mahmood.

Talking to reporters at the launch of a report on the labour situation in Pakistan, the Labour Education Foundation director said the report highlights that although multiple initiatives aimed at addressing workplace safety had been initiated since 2012, all of them have limited transparency.

Most importantly, none of them have been developed with the participation of unions or other labour rights groups.

“Worker representation is missing not only in their design, but also in their implementation and governance.”

He feared that in the absence of inspections by the labour department officials, the situation would further worsen.

Pakistani National Trade Union Federation President Nasir Mansoor said local industries continue to be death traps for workers seven years after the horrible Karachi fire.

He said all stakeholders in the industrial sector, locally and internationally, must take responsibility to ensure safety for their workers, putting the people who make their products at the centre of their safety efforts instead of blocking inspection of these facilities.

“By banning labour inspections we’ve lost an opportunity to monitor and suggest better safety measures at industrial units,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2019