KARACHI, Feb 19: The World Bank has suggested to the government not to treat the 4,000 dock workers listed on the Karachi Dock Labour Board (KDBL) as the permanent employees of the government or the Karachi Port employees but they should be simply registered as port workers.

The WB is also of the opinion that the KDBL, which came into being through an SRO, could be dissolved without any legal lacunas.

The WB, which is playing a consultancy role by providing technical guidelines to the country’s ports in order to make them competitive and cost-effective, wants the government to treat at par all categories of dock labourers by ensuring proper health and insurance cover and shift their social burden on EOBI and other such organisations.

The WB has drawn a negative picture on the performance of the KDLB workers and pointed out that despite the fact they have been given ‘nice cushion arrangements’, yet their output is negligible, which makes them more of a burden on the port users and the economy as a whole.

Since most of the port activities have been mechanised but even then the KDLB registered workers are getting full benefits and are not ready to reduce the strength of gangs when there is no workload. At times unregistered workers have to be brought in to assist and meet the work- load requirements at the Karachi port terminals.

The WB team led by Amer Durrani, the senior transport specialist Sustainable Development Unit, South Asia, last week met chairman Karachi Port Trust (KPT) Vice Admiral Ahmad Hayat and apprised him of the World Bank’s findings with regard to the KDLB and the other measures required to make the Karachi Port cost effective.

The study carried out by the WB discloses that on an average workers registered with the KDLB earn between Rs25,000 to Rs40,000 per month. And in terms of handling cost it comes to around $20 per box, which means that millions of dollars are going to waste as the Karachi Port handles around 1.5 million Teus per annum.

Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn that as per the World Bank findings the 1974 Act, under which dock workers were registered with the KDLB defines that they are neither government employees nor port workers. Furthermore, it was a scheme for workers and not a federal government employment.

What is needed, the WB feels that an amendment in this Act defining minimum rights along with health and insurance cover be ensured to all workers functioning at ports and their entire burden should be shared by stevedoring companies and not the government or the port authorities.

The World Bank also cited an example wherein the Supreme Court in a ruling in the case of Sui Southern Gas Company had declared that all the workers of autonomous bodies were not government employees. Consequently, the WB is of a strong opinion that if the government wants to succeed in implementing its National Trade Corridor (NTC) plan then the cost-effectiveness of the Karachi Port must also be ensured.