Pakistan leads the way in South Asia in legislation for homeworkers. Though not yet at implementation stage, the Homebased Workers Act, 2018 of Sindh; of the Punjab (2023); of Balochistan (2022); and of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (2021) provide crucial frameworks within which homebased workers are in line to be recognised and to access fairer treatment under law. This promising policy environment has the potential to put Pakistan in a strong position, as trade with the EU – and other OECD countries – increasingly becomes subject to business and human rights compliance standards. Following the ‘soft law’ launch of the United Nations Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights in 2011, countries across the world have set about developing legislative and regulatory measures that seek to promote and – in the case of France, for instance – embed human rights due diligence in supply chain management. Significantly, the European parliament has set out its intent to arrive at mandatory human rights due diligence for all EU-based businesses.

Due diligence is understood as a preventive mechanism requiring businesses “to identify and assess potential or actual adverse impacts and to adopt policies and measures to cease, prevent, mitigate, monitor, communicate, address, remediate them and account for how they address those impacts.”

According to the EU resolution, “comprehensive transparency requirements” are “a crucial element of legislation on mandatory due diligence.” Transparency helps to “give suppliers and manufacturers better control and understanding of their supply chains and improve public confidence in production.”

The resolution also says that due diligence should cover “both actual and potential impacts on women’s rights.” It is now even more important that EU-based brands operating in Pakistan take steps to gain better visibility on their supply chains and understand impacts they are having as buyers on their suppliers’ capacity to support the most vulnerable workers. A lack of transparency drives vulnerability as brands are often not aware of the workers’ vital contribution to production processes and are not able to include them in regular audits.

Given that the best due diligence is preventive, not retrospective, it is critical that buyers and their suppliers are equipped with tools they need to get to know their chains well. Recognising this need, an initiative to support transparency and better working conditions needs to kick off in Pakistan with focus on capacity development of key stakeholders on due diligence processes. Brands and suppliers in Pakistan should work to strengthen transparency and improve conditions for informal workers.

In 2020, Pakistan had an estimated 20 million people engaged in homebased work. Home based workers are self-employed and/ or subcontracted piece rate workers. Home based workers are invisible and considered part of the informal economy.

Pakistan is not a signatory to the International Labour Organisation’s C-177 Home Work Convention, 1996. However, each province in Pakistan has enacted its law relating to HBWs. These legislations have resulted in bringing HBWs under legal protection and within the ambit of the formal economy.

It is now even more important that EU-based brands operating in Pakistan take steps to gain better visibility on their supply chains and understand impacts they are having as buyers on their suppliers’ capacity to support the most vulnerable workers.

Recent research on homebased workers in the garments supply chain, conducted in Karachi, provides some insights into the critical exploitation of workers. Community leaders obtained work from factories or workshops and distributed it among HBWs in their communities. The average monthly earning of the workers was Rs 7,934 (equivalent to $45) before Covid-19. This declined to Rs 6,545 (equivalent to $37) during Covid-19. Their monthly income was very low before Covid-19 and declined further during the pandemic. About 75 percent, HBWs were not aware of the minimum wage. About 83 percent of workers in Karachi mentioned that they had eye strain or headache followed by back pain (64 percent); neck/ shoulder pain (56 percent); a feeling of tiredness and sadness (36 percent); cuts and wounds from needle/ thread (26 percent), and hip/ leg pain (20 percent). HBWs taking protective measures to prevent health problems made up only 24 percent.

About 76 percent mentioned that they did not take any protective measures to avoid or reduce health problems. The survey revealed that almost 45 percent of HBWs did not track their work, 40 percent tracked work by noting in a diary and 19 percent said that only the contractor kept records of their work. About 13 percent mentioned that the contractors delayed their payments and about 3 percent mentioned suffering verbal abuse.

Pakistan became the first country in South Asia to launch a five-year (2021-2026) National Action Plan. It was approved by the federal cabinet in September, 2021. The NAP was formally launched in December, 2021 and highlighted eight priority areas: financial transparency, corruption and human rights standards in public procurement contracts, anti-discrimination, equal opportunity and inclusion, human rights due diligence, labour standards and informal economy, child labour, forced or bonded labour, occupational health and safety and access to remedy.

Based on the UNGP, three basic pillars, which outline that businesses must prevent and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts, consist of protect, respect and remedy framework. The protect pillar affirms that the state must prevent, investigate, punish and redress human rights abuses that take place in domestic business operations. In case of homeworkers, the enacted legislation may be implemented across the provinces, likewise the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992, may be implemented in true spirit to eradicate bonded, forced and child labour. Under the second pillar, business enterprises must prevent, mitigate and, where appropriate, remedy human rights abuses that they cause or contribute to. Businesses must seek to prevent or mitigate any adverse impacts related to their operations, products or services, even if these impacts have been carried out by suppliers or business partners. It is important that businesses must have policies and processes in place.

The third and final pillar of the UNGP affirms that when there has been a violation, the state should provide an effective remedy to address the human rights abuse.

Responsibility of the suppliers, brands in businesses is crucial to ending human rights exploitation. It is important that governments and businesses formally recognise the HBWs. Suppliers and brands should recognise homebased workers as their own workers with labour, health and minimum wage rights. Suppliers need to regularly monitor subcontractors to ensure that they have formal written agreements with HBWs, and that their piece-rate wages and working conditions adhere to national and international labour standards. Suppliers should ensure that the HBWs are paid wages that meet or exceed the minimum wage. Suppliers need to compel their subcontractors to have regular discussions with HBWs to promote transparency and improve working conditions.

Businesses should undertake human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for their human rights impacts and form a policy commitment to respect human rights in their operations. Lastly, businesses must have procedures in place to enable remediation for adverse human rights impacts they cause or contribute to.

The writer is a development practitioner, women and labour policy expert. She can be reached at lailazharali@gmail.com