KARACHI, May 26: The significance of social dialogue in industrial relations and relations between labour and management was highlighted at a two-day ILO/SAVPOT/NILAT dissemination workshop on "social dialogue".

"This relationship would be strengthened by establishing and practising social dialogue at enterprise, industry and national level", said director-general, National Institute of Labour Administration Training (NILAT), Hakim Ali Shah Bukhari, while addressing the workshop here on Tuesday.

He told the participants that South Asia and Vietnam Project on tripartism and social dialogue is a regional tripartite project and SAVPOT covers six countries - Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

In the first technical session, a paper by Rajen Mehrotra, representative of ILO, New Delhi was read out by P.S. Ahn. He addressed the social dialogue commitment to convention 144 consultation among the tripartite partners. The same was ratified by Pakistan in 1994.

P.S. Ahn also presented his paper on "Best practices of social dialogue in other countries". In the second technical session, F.K. Siddiqui described the holding of workshop timely in the wake of changes in the in the new world economic and social order.

He said the global socio-economic challenges of the current decade, however, introduce a fourth party, "the customer" into our relationship who will dictate the terms of tripartism.

Siddiqui pointed out that customers worldwide have started demanding "Eco-labelling" and ISO standards which firstly require products to correctly and completely identify ingredients and secondly to identify that preparation process complied with all labour and environmental laws and standards.

In the third technical session, a retired judge and ex-member, NIRC Noman Sheikh, told the participants that with the advent of unionization of workers at the enterprise level, allegedly termed as workers union as against the trade unions which employ in itself the concept of industry-wise trade union, the first legal provision envisaged in the sub-continent was Trade Union Act 1926.

In the pen law, that is, industrial relations ordinance, 2002 the works council was designated as joint works council under Section 24 to deal with almost identical matters, he pointed out.

In the fourth technical session, Chairman, WEBCOP and representative from employers group, Ahsanullah Khan, said that enlightened and visionary like-minded employers and workers' representatives realised the need for creating an effective working relationship among the two industrial partners, particularly in the wake of globalisation.

He said Pakistan is undergoing a rapid change in all sectors and efforts are under way to establish an institutional system and policies which had destroyed the country in the name of democracy.

He said Employers-Workers relations are entering a new phase to meet the challenges while the government, fully supporting the efforts, would soon be able to form policies.

Khalilur Rehman, chairman APFOL and representative of workers, referred to the need for generating employment opportunities and promoting employment opportunities for abundantly available workers in the market.

In the fifth technical session P.S. Ahn, highlighted the case examples of social dialogue in South Asia in overcoming economic issues.

In the sixth technical session, Dr Asad Saeed projected the innovative approaches to institutionalise social dialogue which, he believed, can benefit workers and employers.

At the concluding session, the DG NILAT thanked Director ILO office for Pakistan and the ILO representatives from India Mr Johannes for sharing knowledge and experience on various aspects of social dialogue. -APP