KARACHI: Two independent experts, who had arrived here on July 25 as part of a five-member fact-finding mission formed by the International Labour Organisation to investigate the 2012 factory fire at Ali Enterprises, left on Thursday.

The experts, who earlier investigated the April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, were the last ones to leave the country, after two other members from Geneva and an ILO officer from Islamabad left on July 29 after speaking to the families of the victims, and officers responsible for compensation.

The stakeholders, who were part of some recent meetings with the ILO, said the delegation seemed to think the Ali Enterprises compensation matter is “falling prey to overcompensation”.

The ILO was requested by the German government earlier this year to become a mediator between German textile discount store chain, KiK, and Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), after an earlier agreement between the two parties on compensating the Ali Enterprises fire victims in December 2012 didn’t go as planned.

The German brand KiK, who earlier paid one million dollars as one part of the compensation refused to provide for the life-long compensation for the families of the victims. In the ensuing feud, the German government sought help from the ILO as a third-party investigation into the matter that the labour organisation accepted in May 2016.

The decision was accepted by all the stakeholders including the Sindh government, National Trade Union Federation and Pakistan’s Worker’s Federation including Piler. The ILO delegation met all the stakeholders during their visit, including a visit to the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution and Employees Social Security Institution. They, however, couldn’t meet the Sindh High Court commission’s head Justice (retd) Rehmat Hussain Jaffery who was not in the city.

Executive director of Piler Karamat Ali said: “Some people within the ILO delegation believe that the Ali Enterprises victims’ compensation is falling prey to over-compensation, which we don’t believe is an accurate view.”

Counsel in the Baldia Town factory fire case, Advocate Faisal Siddiqi, said the delegation focused on three issues. How much compensation has already been disbursed among the families of the victims and injured, and how much is needed, and what is and should be the contribution of KiK.

Officers close to the meeting said a report on the findings of the mission is expected by the end of August. The report will also make it in time before the fourth anniversary of the factory fire considered to be the worst factory fire in the country’s history. At the same time, ILO delegation also focused on the lessons Pakistan should learn from the catastrophe of Baldia Town factory fire, labour laws and its implementation in the country, said the executive director of Piler.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2016