ISLAMABAD: Speakers have demanded implementation of minimum wages as well as labour laws in government and private sectors, health insurance for journalists, timely payment of salaries, elimination of forced redundancies and removal of unwarranted restrictions on freedom of expression.

Speaking at a gathering held to mark International Labour Day at the National Press Club on Wednesday, politicians, journalists and labour union representatives demanded due facilities for workers. The event was jointly organised by the National Press Club, Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists and Pakistan Workers Federation.

The speakers also demanded inclusion of representatives of labour organisations in consultations on government decisions and pension reforms. They sought abolition of black laws like Peca, implementation of Pemra amendment act, establishment of complaints councils and enforcement of minimum wage law in media industry, immediate government procurement of wheat from farmers and release of arrested farmers alongside other demands of labourers were presented before the government.

Addressing the ceremony, former Senate chairman and Secretary General of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentarians Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said whenever the PPP came to power it prioritised the rights of labourers.

“We provided jobs and tackled forced redundancies, cases and confrontations. Today, an important issue is with our farmers. If the farmers’ voices are not heard today, Pakistan may face famine in the coming years,” he said, promising that his party would always stand with labour unions as they did in the past.

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said: “Zulfikar Ali Bhutto challenged the capitalist system with the power of labourers. He gave rights to workers, who worked in fields, factories, villages and offices. Whenever the PPP came to power, it openly supported labourers. We regularised daily-wage and contract workers. We always faced cases for providing jobs Whether it’s the private sector or the government, workers’ rights are being violated everywhere.”

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Senator Nasir Butt said: We stand in solidarity with workers and will make worker-friendly policies.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Workers Federation Secretary and CDA’s CBA Union Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin said: “May 1 is the day of workers but today a worker is still worried about poverty. Such is the situation of the implementation of labour laws that minimum wage law has not been enforced even in Islamabad.”

National Press Club (NPC) President Azhar Jatoi and Secretary Nayyer Ali, RIUJ President Tariq Virk, Secretary Asif Basheer Chaudhry, former NPC president Anwar Raza, former RIUJ president Ali Raza Alvi and other labour leaders also spoke on the occasion.

AWP extends solidarity with trade unions

The Awami Workers Party (AWP) paid tributes to the sacrifices of the working class across Pakistan and the world and resolved to continue struggling with and organising the working class against capitalist exploitation, imperialist plunder and all other forms of oppression.

“The AWP extends its solidarity with trade unions, informal workers collective, peasant/farmer organisations and all other progressive forces organising working people, to the tens of millions who are compelled to work for a wage even on the occasion of Labour Day, and to progressive nationalist and feminist organisations who speak for oppressed nations and genders,” AWP President Akhtar Hussain said.

He said the AWP believed that only the broad unity of working class and progressive organisations could ultimately challenge Pakistan’s venal ruling class.

“This domestic ruling class is patronised by imperialist powers, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other donors who have presided over systematic anti-worker policies for decades. Pakistan’s external debt is now $130 billion, the burden of which is continually passed on to working masses in the form of indirect taxation, repeal of subsidies and other draconian measures undertaken in the name of ‘structural reform’. In the last two years alone, Pakistan’s exceedingly young working masses have suffered from unemployment rates of at least 12pc and inflation that has been close to 30pc,” Akhtar Hussain said.

AWP General Secretary Bakhshal Thalho said even those who find employment regularly work for 12-16 hours in despicable conditions – despite the law mandating no more than an eight-hour working day – and only a small percentage of the workforce actually received the formal minimum wage of Rs32,000.

“The present government is now doubling down on repression against the working class and political workers. In the days leading up to Labour Day, the peaceful farmers group Kissan Ittehad faced baton charges and arrests for protesting price hikes in agricultural inputs and basic amenities which the AWP strongly condemns,” he said.

Bakhshal Thalho said increasing resort to repression reflected the complete failure of the government to arrest the decline in all spheres of economic and social life, the burden of which is almost completely borne by working people, oppressed nations and genders.

It is worth mentioning that Labour Day is a reminder of the heroic sacrifices of peaceful workers in the American city of Chicago in 1886, and the innumerable anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and revolutionary movements have dotted history since then. At a time when people of a conscience all over the world are mobilising against Zionist genocide in Palestine, the AWP has vowed to uphold the spirit of revolutionary internationalism amongst working people, oppressed nations and genders across Pakistan.

Taxila

Attock-based labour organisations have pledged to continue their struggles for protecting the fundamental rights of the working class besides paying glowing tributes to the martyrs of Chicago on International Labour Day on Wednesday with great enthusiasm and devotion in line with other parts of the world.

Different labour unions, including All Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD), All Punjab Clerks Association (APCA), Building Highway Department and other unions led by their leaders have taken over rallies from their offices to Fawara Chowk in Attock. They were holding placards inscribed with their demands for regularisation of contractual employees, increase in their salary in line with the recent inflation and other incentives.

Speaking on the occasion, All Pakistan PWD Union Attock president Rana Faisal demanded the government to control the skyrocketing hike in prices of daily commodities as well as ever-increasing cost of electricity and gas. He also demanded the government to permanently suspend employees working on daily wages or on contract.

Earlier, a large number of labourers paid rich tributes to the martyrs of Chicago who laid down their lives on this day 137 years ago in 1886.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2024