HYDERABAD, March 10: Rejecting the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002, the All-Pakistan Trade Unions Organisation has decided to launch a campaign against the IRO 2002 and demanded of the government to restore IRO 1969.

This was resolved by the participants of a meeting, which was held here on Sunday and attended by representatives of the local trade unions affiliated with the APTUO.

Terming the Ordinance against the interests of workers, chairman of APTUO Bashir Ahmed said that under the previous IROs, a sacked employee could seek reinstatement from the court, but all a judge could do under the new law was to order the management to pay an aggrieved worker’s salaries for 12 to 30 months.

He said that the notice period for retrenchment had also been reduced from three to only one month.

Mr Ahmed said that with the compulsory affiliation of a union with a federation, a trade union would lose its entity.

APTUO divisional secretary Mohammad Ashraf Rajput criticized the IRO 2002, saying that it provided full protection to mill owners.

The meeting resolved to hold a rally on March 20 in Hyderabad against the IRO 2002 and further decided to organise protest demonstrations in all of the district headquarters.

Participants of the meeting demanded that the guards of food grain warehouses, some of whom had served for 10 to 12 years, should be regularised.

It also called for reinstatement of the general secretary of the Anwarzeb Cement Factory, Mehdi Hassan, and the gen-eral secretary of the Thatta Cement Factory, Mohammad Ibrahim.

The meeting also urged the government to make the owners of biscuit factories to follow the labour laws.

It demanded of the president and prime minister to repeal what it termed anti-workers IRO 2002. The meeting was presided over by Gul Mohammad.

MINISTER: Laws should be simplified and made practicable to eliminate corruption and encourage investment in the industrial sector.