SWABI, Sept 5: Labourers have been working in what has been described as tense and exploitative environment in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate (GAIE), and there is no-one to check the entrepreneurs.

Sources in the Gadoon Estate told Dawn here on Sunday that out of about 450 units some 25 have been working round the clock. The remaining units had already closed down and majority of them succeeded to shift their machinery to other lucrative industrial zones in the country.

The sources said that the labourers were being forced to work for 12 hours and that too in very hostile environment. According to labour laws none of the workers should be forced to work for more than eight hours and if he wanted to work for additional hours he would get overtime payment.

"If a worker reaches a few minutes late he is told to go back home. It's a kind of bombshell for us because we spend about Rs20 to Rs25 to reach there and when we get such harsh treatment from the industrialists, it agonizes us. But we have no option and always remain at their mercy," said a worker.

The sources said the workers were not allowed to establish unions for their rights and if the industrialists got information about any such attempt by any group, they were immediately expelled en bloc. In some cases, the sources said, if a group succeeded, its leaders were bribed and prevented to work for the workers' rights.

The sources said the Gadoon workers had been deprived of even weekly holidays. They work like a daily wage workers and only their present days are counted, the sources added.

Majority of them, the sources said, were getting Rs70 to Rs80 per day and if the government announced any increase in the salary Gadoon workers never got it. If a worker was injured while working he hardly got the medical treatment or the salary for the days he remained at home.

Besides, the sources said, they never got salaries in time and if anyone demanded he would invite his expulsion and a plain reply to stop working. The leaders of the Gadoon Labour Federation said that they had chalked out a plan for the implementation of labour laws and they might invite trade union leaders of various countries to visit Gadoon estate and see the exploitation of the workers.