KARACHI, July 18: The International Labour Organisation (ILO)-Pakistan encourages the government of Pakistan to ratify the ILO Convention 189, which pertains to the decent work for domestic workers. It is now the responsibility of civil society to advocate for its ratification.
This was stated by Margaret Reade Rounds, the ILO programme analyst in Pakistan, while delivering a lecture on ‘Compliance of ILO conventions in Pakistan’ organised by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) at a local hotel.
“The demand has to come from workers and civil society which can ask the government to ratify the convention,” she said in reply to a question during the event. She informed the audience that the ILO Convention 189 was the first convention which covered the rights of the workers of informal economy.
ILO passed the Convention 189 at Geneva last year and so far only one country, Uruguay has ratified it.
Ms Rounds spoke on the working mechanism of ILO and the role of its Pakistan office in assisting the government in the implementation of the conventions. She noted that Pakistan had so far ratified 34 of the total 189 ILO conventions. However, it was one of the few countries in the region which had ratified all the eight ILO Contentions that covered the core labour rights, she added.
After the 18th constitutional amendment, the core responsibility of the implementation of the labour-related issues rested with the provincial governments, she said, adding that the other regions and Islamabad, remain the responsibility of the federal ministry of human resource development.
“ILO now focuses on both federal and provincial governments, besides employers and workers organisations,” she added.
Ms Rounds said that ILO was mandated to provide technical assistance and support delivery. “When people ask me, I say that the ILO Pakistan office is not mandated to deliver. Some demo programmes address the ultimate beneficiaries directly but support is aimed at enabling the environment and the capacity of Pakistan and Pakistanis to apply international labour standards through policies, legislation and programmes,” she remarked.
Explaining the functioning of the ILO, she said it worked under a tripartite constituency, means equal rights to government, employer and employees. The ILO used various means of action to support its constituents to directly impact or indirectly influence the application of international labour standards.
Members of the audience — mainly from trade unions and other associations of workers as well as civil society organisations — complained about non-implementation of those ILO Conventions in Pakistan which had already been ratified by the country.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Piler executive director Karamat Ali said true representation of employers and employees at ILO was essential for effectively implementing its conventions.
Noted economist Dr Kaiser Bengali, Ehsanullah Khan of the Workers-Employees Bilateral Council of Pakistan, Majyd Aziz of the Employers Federation of Pakistan, Saeed Baloch of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Dr Aly Ercelan, Habibuddin Junaidi, Lateef Mughal, Noor Mohammad and Iqbal Detho were also present.—PPI