KARACHI, Sept 7: Speakers at a seminar on Thursday criticised the government for depriving the labour class of their fundamental, constitutional rights by making amendments to labour policies and urged for the safeguard of their due rights and improving their living standards.

They expressed these views at a seminar on “Impact of recent changes in labour policy”, arranged by the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) at its Vicky Zeitlin Media Library here.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Asad Saeed said that organised labour unions emerged some 200 years back. He said that labour unions and industrialisation were inter-linked.Dr Saeed said that an 'informal' organisation of labour unions was the need of the hour as under formal organisation, only registered workers of a particular union could get benefits.

The executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Karamat Ali, observed that organisation of labour unions played an important role for the attainment of labour rights. He accused the present government for violating labour policies and said that in fact after 1947 labour-friendly policies were carried out in Pakistan only for a few years. The rate of unionization in 1951 was 25 per cent, he added.

He expressed concerned that according to Pakistani labour laws agricultural workers were not considered as labourers. He said like Pakistan, the rate of labour unions in USA was also very low, adding that in the US this rate was 10 per cent.

He said that the private sector was violating laws regarding compulsory uniform, weekly holidays, working hours and contract workers, and the government was turning a blind eye towards them.

Mr Ali said that the present government had destroyed constitutional structure of labour laws, which was a violation of the constitution. He announced to challenge the government in court for taking such measures.

He condemned the extension of working hours for female workers till 10pm and urged an industry-wise formation of labour unions.

Director Course Coordinator NILAT Ghayurul Hassan admitted that amendments were being made to the labour policies by the government and claimed that the government policies had positive effects too. Mr Hassan said that there was some international pressure for amending labour laws, but to survive in the present era, the administration had to take such steps.

He held corruption and irregularities of the representatives of labour unions responsible for the deplorable condition of the working class in the country. He observed that despite 6,000 labour unions, the workers could not make the government agree accept their demands, adding the reason for it was their own weaknesses. Former president, SSGC Employees Union, Usman Baloch, accused the governments of ignoring ILO charters and rules.—PPI