LAHORE, Dec 21: International Labour Organisation director Donglin Li has said all ILO member states are required to respect and adhere to its core conventions as minimum labour standards regardless of their status of ratification.

Speaking at the 63rd National General Body Session of the Pakistan Wapda Hydro-Electric Central Labour Union held at the Bakhtiar Labour Hall on Thursday, he stressed that the core conventions required to be respected by all ILO member states included freedom of association, right of collective bargaining, freedom from forced and child labour, and equality and non-discrimination at work which were the universal enabling rights of every worker. Union president Abdul Latif Nizamani chaired the session.

The ILO director said a strong and cohesive tripartism required to be forged through social dialogue for the enforcement of ILO conventions because everything became difficult when dialogue failed. The collective bargaining was one of the most important aspects of social dialogue for determining the wages and working conditions through free and voluntary negotiations between representatives of workers and employers.

It enabled workers and employers to define the rules governing their relationship through an agreement.

He said the ILO was implementing its Decent Work Country Programme in Pakistan in collaboration with its constituents. It was fighting unemployment and poverty, creating employment opportunities for men and women, fighting child labour and helping the victims of the earthquake. The organisation would continue to work for making further improvements in the world of work in Pakistan.

Wapda chairman Tariq Hamid said the authority was taking all possible steps for the welfare of the workers. Healthcare facilities were being provided to workers through nine hospitals and 22 dispensaries at a cost of Rs689 million per annum. Dispensaries had been re-opened in Sheikhupura and Sialkot and employees allowed to undergo heart treatment at Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi. Eye and ENT specialists had been posted in Wapda hospitals and eye surgery facilities made available at Multan.

He said the group life insurance amount for line staff had been doubled and the crew and hard area allowances had been extended up to Dec 31 this year at a cost of Rs172 million. The crew allowance was also being paid to the grid maintenance staff.

He said the emergency cadre divisional accountants had been allowed to stay on their posts on passing three departmental examinations and promotion quota of stenographers had been increased. Graduation condition had been waived for the promotion of stores’ staff and minimum period for appearing in departmental examinations had been reduced from five to three years and new posts had been created for meter supervisors in grade 9 and 11. The authority was also spending Rs146 million per annum on 38 schools for providing educational facilities to the children of workers.

Union secretary-general Khurshid Ahmad, Gohar Taj, Iqbal Qaim and other leaders demanded increase in pay and allowances of workers and lifting of restrictions on collective bargaining rights of workers. They also stressed the need for provision of funds to Wapda for construction of new hydropower projects for generating cheap electricity.