KARACHI, July 7: The Pakistan chapter of the Asian Human Rights Commission has criticized the government for enforcing a piece of legislation that renders many laws on the statute book tilted against workers.

In a press statement issued on Friday, the AHRC says: “The Finance Bill has illegally introduced amendments to the following laws: the Factories Act 1934, Shops and Establishment Ordinance 1969, West Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance 1968, Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971, and the Employees Old-Age Benefits Act 1976.

“By amending the Shops and Establishment Ordinance, the government has increased daily working hours from eight to twelve. The compulsory weekly holiday has been abolished. Provisions to bar females from working in factories before sunrise and after sunset under sections 38 and 45 of the Factories Act have been amended. Employers may now force them to work two shifts at a time, up to 10pm. A new category of ‘contract worker’ has been added to the Standing Orders Ordinance. These workers will not be entitled to compensation for overtime. In addition, the ceiling on overtime has been raised from 150 hours to 624 hours a year for adults and from 100 hours to 468 hours for juveniles.

The AHRC has also critcised the government for restricting the scope of the Workers Welfare Fund and the EOBI. “Registration with the EOBI will from now on be compulsory only for establishments employing 20 or more workers, a hugely regressive step that will drastically curtail its applicability and deprive millions of workers of their fundamental rights,” says the press statement.