KARACHI: The problems faced by workers due to the coronavirus lockdown, including not getting their rightful wages and even getting laid off, forced several labour leaders and trade unionists to come out and talk about these issues at a press conference called at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday.

They demanded the provision of unemployment allowance for the workers under a universal social security system just like the one available in other countries. They also observed that all the benefits being offered by the government were being extended to businesses and the industry while the employees had been ignored.

“Our workers don’t have the safeguards, which they had been promised by the Sindh government ahead of the lockdown. They had been promised that they would keep getting their salaries and that none of them would lose their job, which the government has failed to ensure,” said Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research. He added that there were some 40 million workers in Sindh of whom only five per cent were registered with social security institutions such as the Employees Old Age Benefit Institution.

He said that as per Article 29 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the country’s president is bound to present the report on implementation of the Principles of Policy of the Articles of 37 and 38 pertaining to the provision of social security to all citizens during his annual address before parliament. “A few days back, when I spoke to President Dr Arif Alvi I inquired why he had not presented such a report during the two years he had been the president, he was not even aware of this constitutional requirement,” he said.

He also said that they would ask economists to prepare a blueprint of the implementation of the Principles of Policy, which would then be presented to the president for consideration if the government could not do it.

‘They are the front-line soldiers during this pandemic; many of them have not been given proper PPE’

Habibuddin Junaidi of the Peoples Labour Bureau also expressed serious concerns on the non-implementation of the Sindh government’s order asking the industries and companies not to lay off their workers during the lockdown and make full payment of their salaries. “We have come to know that many industries, including public sector factories such as the Pakistan Machine Tool Factory, have not paid salaries to their workers,” he said.

A number of banks have closed many of their branches during the lockdown and their employees are suffering. The government and the State Bank of Pakistan have provided incentives to the employers and owners of the industries, but what about the people who work for them? We call upon the SBP to ensure that companies which are availing the soft-term loans under special schemes providing incentives to their workers,” he added.

Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation said that the Sindh government had tried to provide legal coverage for its notification through an ordinance, but it was not signed by the governor of Sindh. “And the provincial government is not pushing for it. He demanded that the ordinance be issued or there should be legislation through the Sindh Assembly.”

Farhat Parveen of the National Organisation of Working Communities pointed towards the plight of doctors and other health workers. “They are the front-line soldiers during this pandemic, who have to work no matter what the conditions and many of them have not even been provided with proper personal protective equipment,” she said.

Zehra Khan of the Home-based Women Workers Federation demanded that the health and education budget be at par with the defence budget. “We also don’t want the taxes we pay to be used for repaying Pakistan’s loans. We want our tax money to be spent on human resource development,” she said.

Liaqat Sahi of the Democratic Workers Union of State Bank of Pakistan said that there was no record of outsourced workers. “When you don’t even know the exact number of workers because there are so many who are third party workers and contractual workers, how are you going to help them?” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2020