Workers’ groups demand implementation of labour laws in construction sector

Welcoming the decisions of the federal government to provide a incentive package and declare construction an industry, worker rights and trade unions groups on Saturday have demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide the workers of the construction sector the same facilities that the industrial workers have, including their registration under various labour laws and provision of social security facilities.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, Karamat Ali, the executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Unions Federation, Habibuddin Junaidi of the Peoples Labour Bureau, Liaqat Sahi of the State Bank Democratic Workers Union, Zehra Khan of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation, Farhat Perveen of the NOW Communities, Qamrul Hassan of the IUF Pakistan and others demanded that the labour laws should be mandatorily implemented in the construction industry.

They said various tax exemptions and other monetary benefits had been announced for the construction industry, which would boost the overall economy in the future. Measures should be taken to ensure that those benefits should also be transferred to the workers engaged in various sub-sectors of the construction industry, they said, adding that in the construction sector, occupational safety and health measures were not taken, which often resulted in fatal accidents.

Under the Factories Act and special law on occupation safety and health in Sindh and Punjab, the government should ensure the safety of construction workers.

Currently, workers in the construction sector are considered as informal workers and they are not included in the definition of workers in many labour laws, including the law pertaining to the registration of trade unions, i.e. Industrial Relations Act 2002. Although Sindh has included all workers in its industrial relations law (SIRA 2013), labourers are not taking benefits from that law as well, they said.

The labour unions' leaders said that Pakistan was a signatory to various conventions under the International Labour Organisation, including the mandatory eight core labour standards, so Pakistan should make the laws accordingly and construction workers should be given the rights of association and collective bargaining.

They also said that there was no record of the construction workers with the labour department so all the workers should be registered with relevant institutions like social security institutions, Workers Welfare Fund and Employees Oldage Benefit Institution.

The minimum wages law should also be applied to the construction workers and the labour department should fix minimum wages for the skilled workers in the construction sector, they said.