Workers’ safety

Last July, twelve labourers died and several others were critically injured when, during a spell of monsoon rain, an eleven-foot-high wall collapsed on their camps at the Golra underpass in Islamabad. In another tragic incident a few months earlier, two labourers were killed and three injured when a pillar of the then under-construction Bara Kahu bypass, also in Islamabad, fell on top of them. The issue of lack of workplace safety and decent working conditions comes to the fore whenever workers die like this. Pakistan is lacking in workplace safety in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy.

This is despite us signing an MOU with the International Labour Organization that calls for promoting a safe working environment. In order to achieve workplace safety, decent work standards should be implemented in every sector. Otherwise the lives of hardworking labourers will always remain at risk.

Imtiaz Ahmed

Rawalpindi