LAHORE: Almost all labour organisations have rejected the Punjab Labour Code 2024 terming it rights of the workers and have announced launching a resistance movement if it is implemented unilaterally.

Leaders of the Labour Alliance, which represents 40 trade unions, told a press conference here on Thursday that in the name of combining all labour laws framed between 1923 and 2023 the Punjab Labour Code 2024 legalises contract system by effectively eliminating the job security and also provides legal cover to advance (peshgi) system in the kiln industry.

Flanked by Niaz Khan and Mahmoodullah, alliance coordinator Hanif Ramay said the code restricts forming of trade unions at sector level, abolishes the right to strike, and gives legal cover to child labour.

He claimed that the code also fails to ensure the workers an unconditional right to form unions and elect their collective bargaining agents and if implemented in the present form it would convert industrial and commercial entities into bonded labour camps.

Seeking withdrawal of the code, he demanded the government instead convene a tripartite meeting inviting representatives of the employers and employees for a meaningful dialogue to ensure that rights of the workers are not usurped in any way.

Mr Ramay warned if the government tried to unilaterally enforce the code, all workers from the platform of Labour Alliance would resist the move tooth and nail.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2024