KARACHI: Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) observed Global Day of Action at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday.

The day, April 13, has been set by them and several other local and international human rights and labour-related organisations looking for justice for the victims of the Baldia factory fire.

The deadly fire at Ali Enterprise took place on Sept 11, 2012, claiming 256 lives and injuring 55, with two workers becoming permanently disabled. The immediate legal compensation to the workers by the government was completed because of legal intervention by human rights organisations through the Sindh High Court, but the question of long-term compensation for the rehabilitation of the victims’ families and survivors remains unresolved.

Piler’s campaign and advocacy with its international campaign partners, since 2012, has also resulted in an immediate relief of $1 million by the German brand KIK Textilien, the main buyer of Ali Enterprise products. This was achieved through a legal agreement between Piler and KIK. The amount has been distributed among the victims and survivors through the Sindh High Court commission, especially set up for this purpose. However, there is still a dire need for long-term compensation by KIK Textilien for the rehabilitation of the families and survivors of the tragedy as a full long-term compensation.

In response to the aforementioned global campaign on Ali Enterprise, the International Labour Organisation has started a mediation process to resolve the issue of long-term compensation. For this purpose the ILO is planning to call a multi-stakeholders’ consultation to discuss the framework of the long-term compensation for the victims of the incident as committed by KIK in its agreement with Piler.

Speakers at the press conference, including Shahida Parveen, widow of Mohammad Akmal, Karamat Ali, Piler’s executive director and Habibuddin Junaidi, convener of the Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee discussed some points of action, including presenting their demands for justice for the victims of the horrific tragedy to push KiK Textilien to pay fair compensation for long-term rehabilitation to the victims.

They demanded that the responsibility for the incident be fixed immediately by the court and the responsible persons/authorities be punished according to the law without any further delay.

Compliance with Core Labour Standard of the ILO and workplace safety arrangements was also discussed with a demand for it to be made by the state for the prevention of such incidents in the future, which can be achieved through the effective and immediate labour compliance under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences or GPS plus scheme.

This Global Day of Action is organised among others by the Clean Clothes Campaign (the Netherlands), European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (Germany), IndustriAll Global Union, Asia Floor Wage Alliance, Trade Unions in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, trade unions and human rights organisations in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Multan, Quetta, Hafizabad and Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2016