Pakistan : Call to establish provincial directorate for informal workers
Karachi, July 1: Participants at a workshop demanded of the Sindh government to set up a directorate for informal workers to maintain information about the largely undocumented yet expansive workforce.
This recommendation came up at the conclusion of a two-day workshop on June 30 held to help come up with the modalities for finalising a policy for home-based workers in the province. The event was organised by HomeNet Pakistan in collaboration with the provincial labour and human resource department and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Senator Taj Haider, the general secretary of Pakistan People’s Party in Sindh, said on the occasion that a policy for home-based workers will soon be approved by the Sindh government.
“There is a need to bring these skilled workers under the umbrella of social and legal protection and provide opportunities to them kick start their own businesses,” he said. “The initiative taken for registering and helping the Banarsi hand weavers in Khairpur needs to be replicated across the province.”
The Sindh labour secretary, Abdul Rasheed Solangi, also confirmed that the home-based workers policy had been sent to the cabinet for final approval. “We are hopeful that the Sindh government will also take the lead in approving a policy for home-based workers which would also ensure empowerment of women skilled workers,” he said.
Umme Laila Azhar, the executive director of HomeNet Pakistan, said keeping in view the globally emerging trends in informal economy and the transition of the informal businesses to informal economy in 2015, the ILO had to come up with a definition of informal economy.
She said the Sindh Industrial Relations Act (SIRA) had included agriculture and fishery workers under its umbrella and had enabled the workers concerned to form unions. Likewise, she said, home based workers and domestic workers also needed to be included in the SIRA and brought under the umbrella of social protection.
Azhar said the workshop was held to pave the way for establishing a directorate for informal workers in the province to register people who worked from home, at other people’s homes, in the agriculture sector and in fisheries.
Karamat Ali, the executive director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, said the ILO conventions were based on ground realities since every worker mattered in the global supply chain.
“The self-employed or informal workers are a large numbers in Pakistan where there are only 8000 registered unions with a membership of about 400,000, that is relatively low as compared to other developing countries,” he said.
Ghulam Nabi Memon, the joint director of labour and human rights department of Sindh, shared updates on social protection mechanisms for home-based workers in the province. He said the provincial government had taken the lead in formulating new policies by keeping in view the issues of home-based workers and their problems.
“The labour department has drafted a policy for occupational safety and health care for informal workers and has been sent to the cabinet for approval,” he said. “Meanwhile, we have amended 12 laws over the past few months to ensure protection of regulated workers.”
A leader of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Ayoub Shaan, demanded formulation of laws for social protection of fishery workers in Sindh. “More than 4 million people work in the fisheries sector and have no legal umbrella for health or economic protection,” he said. “Women have now begun to opt for some other skilled work from homes and don’t want to work in fisheries any more.”
Published by Daily The News on July 1, 2016
