KARACHI: Labour leaders and activists staged a rally at the conclusion of their three-day protest camp and demanded that the government be declared every form of the contractual system a crime and ensure its eradication.

The protest camp and the rally against the contractual system were, jointly organised by the National Trade Union Federation Pakistan (NTUF) and Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF).

The rally, which was led by Riaz Abbasi and Zehra Khan, also demanded permanent employment and written appointment letters to all workers, living wages instead of the minimum wage, register of all workers with social security institutions, restoration of the right to unionise, take steps to ensure workplaces are free from harassment for every worker, enforcement of labour laws in factories and industries, etc.

Speaking on the occasion, labour leaders emphasised that for over half a century, labour laws and the Supreme Court had recognised permanent employment as a fundamental right for workers.

Three-day protest camp by labour leaders, activists concludes

This right, hard-won through workers’ struggles globally, forms the bedrock of a worker’s identity and their relationship with their employing institution. A legally binding written appointment letter is central to this identity, they added.

Nasir Mansoor of the NTUF said that permanent employment and written appointment letters not only ensure the payment of wages, gratuity, bonuses, and the legal right to unionisation and collective bargaining but also guarantee registration with social security and old-age pension schemes, as well as benefiting from workers’ welfare schemes.

Based on that right, workers had the legal recourse to resolve disputes with their employers, he said, adding that permanent employment helped workers become socially, politically, and economically active citizens, while also providing mental and psychological satisfaction.

He said that capitalists viewed permanent employment as a burden on the organisation and perceived the associated rights as obstacles to profit, industrial development, and investment.

To evade their recognised duties through tripartite consultations, they had found an escape route in the form of the contractual (Thekaidari) system.

“The contracting system had spread like cancer in factories, financial institutions, government and semi-government departments, autonomous bodies, municipal corporations, private security providers, and all types of workplaces,” he said and emphasised that every government and its institutions, particularly the labour department, had played a key role in imposing the contractual system with the support of capitalists.

Comrade Usman Baloch said that currently, the majority of the 80 million workforce were employed under some form of the contracting system, which had driven their families below the poverty line.

Due to this pernicious contracting system, 95 per cent of workers were deprived of written appointment letters, social security, pensions, minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, paid weekly holidays, annual leave, gratuity, and bonuses.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairman Asad Iqbal But stressed that the contracting system had turned workers into machines generating wealth without any rights.

He pinpointed that at the behest of employers, contractors had made it common practice to dismiss workers without cause at any time. “The contracting system in factories had forced millions of workers to live lives worse than animals, while the wealth of capitalists and the number of factories had increased exponentially,” he added.

Zehra Khan of HBWWF said that the capitalists and government institutions had long been conspiring to provide legal protection to the contracting system. “Now, even international organisations, like the International Labour Organization (ILO), are providing technical expertise and assistance for that purpose.”

She said that labour resistance against legalising such lawlessness had become an urgent necessity. She emphasised that the only way to secure the fundamental rights of the working class was to uproot every form of the contracting system.

She announced that a significant battle had been imposed on the workers, which could only be won through a united struggle.

Those who spoke in the rally included Gul Rehman of the Movement for Labour Rights, Riaz Abbasi of SITE Labour Forum, Qazi Khizr of HRCP, Sajjad Zaheer of Anjuman-e-Taraqqi pasand Musafeen, Saeed Baloch of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Mir Zulfiqar, senior journalist Sohail Sanghi, Prof Tauseef Ahmed and others.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024