May Day 2019

May Day 2019

Today is Labour Day. The day is being observed in memory of the struggle by Chicago's workers for 8-hour work, which is practically not available now anywhere in the world including Pakistan. 

Pakistan is the worst example of labour exploitation. We had inherited the labour laws from the British period including the key Indian Trade Unions Act 1926, which is still enforced in India but dictators scrapped it and the Factories Act 1934 which has never been implemented in factories.

The military dictators Ayoub Khan, Yahya and Ziaul Haq were the worst as far as labour is concerned, leave alone the entire nation. They practically usurped all those labour rights which even the empire had bestowed on its subjects. The Military Dictator Yahya Khan gave a new law for the registration of trade unions, the Industrial Relations Ordinance 1969, which further deteriorated the labour movement in Pakistan. 

Later, the neo-liberal economic policies imposed by Briton Wood in the name of liberalisation completely ruined the labour rights situation in Pakistan.
Privatization of the state-owned corporations completely washed out the trade unions from almost all sectors where earlier there were strong unions. Presently only 1% of workers are organised under trade unions in Pakistan.

Banking is the glaring example, where there is no unions, ghee, cement, and telecommunications sector had strong unions but the situation is the opposite now.

The working conditions in both private and government establishments have deteriorated with the introduction of contract and third-party contract systems in employment, which was first adopted by the private sector but then the government also started using it. This system provides relief to the employers from NOT paying employment benefits to the workers and also free them from the hassle of dealing with trade unions.

Although the Supreme Court of Pakistan has already declared the contract and third-party employment as against the Constitution, no measure has been taken by the government to end this exploitative system.