HYDERABAD, Oct 19: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Church World Service (CWS) jointly organized a workshop at Hyderabad press club here on Friday to inculcate awareness of their rights in the workers of the informal organizations.

Speaking at the workshop, the vice chairperson of HRCP, Ali Hassan, noted academician, Prof Khalid Wahab, president National Labour Federation, Sindh, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, former student leader, Momin Khan Momin, coordinator HRCP Hyderabad, Ms Nasreen Shakeel Pathan, and Aftab Ahmed Chaudhry assured the workers of the informal organizations of their support in their struggle for their rights.

Mr Ali Hassan said that the HRCP had always supported and would continue to support the working class.

He, however, made it clear that the workers must unite to launch a joint and consistent struggle for their legal rights.

Mehmood Ali pointed out that the same rules and regulations and labour laws were applicable to the workers of formal and informal organizations but the workers of informal organizations had failed to get their rights as they had no trade unions.

He said in the private sector industries, 86 per cent of the workers had no organizational setup.

He urged the workers of informal organisations to organize themselves and form unions for their rights.

Prof Wahab said that even the government employees had no security of service.

He said that massive unemployment had created anarchic situation in the country and the youth had developed criminal tendencies and had fallen prey to drug addiction.

He said that private schools, beauty parlours and other small organizations were earning millions of rupees but their owners were not prepared to accept the genuine demands of their employees.

Mr Momin said that with putting pressure on the factory administration, a sense of responsibility should also be developed among the workers so that they should not be misled by attractive but misleading slogans.

He cautioned the workers that financial stability was dependent on the stability of the production units.

The coordinator of HRCP bonded labour cell Aftab Ahmed said that the basic hurdle in the way of working class was its ignorance of labour laws.

He said that it was the duty of the trade unions to educate the workers about the national and international labour laws.

Ms Nasreen Pathan thanked the participants of the workshop.