KARACHI, March 15: Trade union leaders on Friday criticised the outgoing PPP-led coalition government over what they described as “the worst ever and miserable conditions labourers had to undergo” during the past five years even after restoration of democracy in the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, they said that though it was gratifying that an elected government had been able to complete its sanctioned five-year term, they felt compelled to say that the government had failed to meet expectations of workers as far as trade union activities and their rights struggle were concerned.

Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Unions Federation Pakistan (NTUFP) said that it was regrettable that governments in the centre and provinces had totally ignored workers, despite the fact that they played a basic role in various movements towards removal of retired general Pervez Musharraf’s government and restoration of genuine judiciary to the country and offered numerous sacrifices.

It was disappointing that even during the last days of the government, labourers had been subjected to victimisation and violence and were arrested by the police for “practising labour rights at a hotel and a pharmaceutical industry in Karachi,” he said.

He said that it was also ‘shocking’ that 12 power-loom workers were given a collective sentence of 490 years in various cases for their struggle of rights in Punjab, while another group of power-loom workers were tried in anti-terrorism courts.

He said at a time when elections were just round the corner, he would urge all political parties to make provisions for workers’ health and safety and overall betterment — including increased wages, compensation and pension — in their election manifestos and formulate policies to ensure transparent and unbiased implementation of all labour-related laws in the country.

He said that the implementation of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws in the case of factory workers was lax and the worst-affected were workers in the textile and ship-breaking sectors.

Despite massive destruction and heavy losses of human lives in a local textile and garment factory in Karachi some months back, the government had remained unmoved for OHS, he said.

Another trade union leader, Rafiq Baloch, said that while Punjab had abolished the factory inspection system, the labour department inspectors were not seen here active in the interest of workers and their safety and rights, including salary and other facilities.

The labour inspectors who largely worked under the influence of their bosses in the bureaucracy or political quarters or groups seeking protection of factory owners rarely inspected industries from workers point of view and were not performing their duties for which they were being paid, he added.

Another senior leader of the NTUFP, Mohammad Shafiq Ghauri, said that registration of a factory with the labour department prior to its establishment and periodic inspections were already prescribed in the factory Act of 1934 and only a political and official commitment was needed to comply with the laws and rules.

Usman Baloch of the Workers Party and Zehra Khan of the Home Based Women Workers Federation also spoke.

The labour leaders jointly demanded strict implementation of safety and health laws and other labour-related laws, expediting the process of factory registration in line with a superior court order, regularisation of workers, registration of industrial units and factories with the social security and the old-age-benefit institutions, group insurance for labours, recognition of workers in the agriculture sector and increase in the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution pension amount and release of all arrested workers.