Coronavirus crisis triggers massive layoffs across Karachi’s industries

On Monday afternoon, a large number of workers participated in a protest organised in the Korangi Industrial Area against the dismissal of hundreds of workers from jobs and denial of their wages during the lockdown.

The National Trade Union Federation, a labour rights body, organised the protest at Bilal Chorangi, where labour leaders and workers, said that textile mills and factories had sacked thousands of people during the lockdown, defying the provincial government orders.

The NTUF protest was the part of a series of protests that have been organised outside the factories and textile mills in the city’s different parts against their dismissals. Last week, workers of various factories and mills organised protests on the National Highway, the SITE area and Landhi Industrial Area.

On Wednesday, the NTUF and the Democratic Workers Federation jointly filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court against the dismissals of workers and the non-payment of wages.

Workers who have been sacked recently told The News on Wednesday that a large number of employers were exploiting the coronavirus crisis and had started laying off workers who had been employed for decades. In many cases, the employers had been forcing them to work as precarious workers under the illegal contract system, they said.

In its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Sindh government had earlier closed the factories and industries in the city during the lockdown, and had also issued some notifications that paid leave for all workers would be given and nobody would be laid off during the lockdown.

But the results of the lockdown have started to surface to be borne by the workers. Exploiting the coronavirus crisis and lockdown, owners of industries, particularly garment factories and textile mills, have been sacking workers and refusing to pay them wages during the lockdown period, labour leaders and sacked workers said.

Nasir Mansoor, the NTUF’s secretary-general, said that during the coronavirus crisis, forced dismissals of workers had become the norm.

“The holy month of Ramazan is ending and the Eid festival is about to come. But factory owners also refuse to pay wages to workers despite government announcements. Due to this, a situation of starvation has arisen in the workers’ families. At present, more than 10 million working families are on the verge of abject poverty and starving,” Masnoor told The News.

“What could be more proving the cruelty of most employers than the fact that they have refused to take advantage of the State Bank offer of long-term and very-easy- term loans for the payment of wages and job protections,” he said.

Although officials and confirmed statistics are not available, Mansoor and other labour leaders believe that more than two million workers have lost their jobs in the city alone.

In Karachi, millions of workers toil in sweatshop-like garment factories and textile mills, without work safety and insurance, to produce commodities, particularly readymade garments worth billions of rupees, said Ikramullah, convener of the Karachi Mazdoor Ittehad, a newly formed labour committee against workers’ expulsions.

“But now in the coronavirus crisis, instead of paying salaries from the profit, factory owners are laying off workers and not paying them their wages,” Ikramullah told The News. He also said that in the name of the standard operating system (SOPs), the mill owners were expelling workers whose ages were above 45.

Most of the sacked workers said the management had told them to leave the factory by saying that their services were not required anymore, the workers told The News. They also said that factory mills released March's salary with deductions.

Govt under pressure

After issuing a notification on March 24 regarding the safety of workers' wages and jobs, the Sindh government has initially empowered district administration, particularly deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners, to enforce the order on industries.

In some areas, such as the SITE area and Landhi Industrial Area, it worked well and the district administrations had forced the factories' owners to obey the government’s orders, stop expulsion of workers and ensure payment of their wages during the lockdown period.

However, the industrialists’ associations have pressured the provincial government to take back the powers of redressal from the local administration, especially commissioners and deputy commissioners, of grievances concerning the non-payment of wages and dismissals.

Industrialists have also forced the provincial government to transfer immediately Dadan Khan, an assistant commissioner of SITE (District West), who had acted on complaints of workers and bound several factories in his jurisdiction to pay their wages during the lockdown. On May 9, Khan was transferred to the provincial health department, a notification said.

Also, at the behest of company owners, the government has given back the powers of redressal to the labour department’s officials, who are notorious for keeping silent over abuses of workers’ rights in the industries, labour leaders complained.

“It is very unfortunate that Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani announces to the media that workers’ wages and jobs will be protected at all costs,” said Abdul Basit Jagrani, general secretary of the Textile, and Garments General Workers Union. “But in reality, the opposite is happening. Ghani should ensure his commitments in the true spirit.”

Mansoor said that the Sindh government should take steps to give legal protection to the notification for the protection of wages and jobs during the lockdown. When contacted by The News on Wednesday, the chief minister's adviser Murtaza Wahab said the government kept hearing such stories but rarely got complaints officially.

“The labour department is authorised to take action against anyone violating the order and laying off workers. I know of a couple of factories where this happened and the labour department immediately took action," he said.

“I agree that a number of employers are violating the order, but we need people to lodge complaints so that we can take action,” he said.