Labouring over a policy
Over a hundred years ago, a number of workers were gunned down in Chicago, the event is commemorated every year on first May as MAY DAY. Various rallies being held all over the world, in Pakistan, like in other third world countries, abundant rhetoric is the order of the day. Labour is faring relatively better under a democratic system than anytime during the last decade, perception having changed more than fact. One is wonder-struck why desperate calls for MAYDAY, the international distress signal, have not arisen in chorus from our troubled labour class (and in some cases, at the reverse end of the stick, our industrialists).
The industrial and commercial workers comprise the recognized labour class, leaving out the vast mass of agriculture workers who are maltreated the most, a fair percentage being women. No laws seem effectively to apply for the benefit of Labour, particularly about their wages and the payment thereof. Every single worker must be paid by cheque or by direct transfer to his individual bank account. Used to being paid in cash, workers may suffer some disruption to their normal routine, commensurately they will have the following benefits (1) the actual amount paid to individuals will be reflected in bank transactions, making for a statistical record of sorts (2) avoidance of the normal penchant of the industrial units/commercial concerns to exaggerate actual salary paid out (for income tax purposes) (3) real record will be available for deductions pertaining to Employees Social Security Institutions (ESSI) and Employees Old-Age Benefit Institutions (EOBI), in this case less workers and salaries paid are declared (4) individuals will perforce be forced into the habit of savings, inducing more national savings while at the same time the individual has a reserve for a rainy day (5) money can be transferred from bank account to bank account of individual at place of work to his original place of residence or location of family, etc (6) inordinate losses of money on pay day of workers at the hand of unscrupulous individuals/exploiters will be avoided. While there has been worker resistance to this idea, ultimately it has been taken by the broad mass of workers to have worked wherever implemented. Payment of salaries in cash causes too much money to float in the unaccounted sector during a particular period of the month.
Labour laws in Pakistan are comprehensive and in theory all-encompassing, read with all the accessory Acts they become too arcane, implementation leaving much to be desired. In some cases the Unions have the power of life and death over a functioning industrial or commercial unit, in some cases the poor workers have no say. While contract labour, essentially correct for the Tertiary sector, amounts to a crime against the labour class in producing units. As the construction boom has died away in Karachi, lack of job opportunities forced the unskilled Pathan labour into the clutches of drugs and gun smugglers. Since Pathans controlled the city’s private transportation, the passengers, mainly Mohajir white collar workers felt the edge of their impatience, the Bushra Zaidi accident brought it all to a head, the result has been ethnic strife, now followed, after the advent of democracy, by inter-party clashes. Many people do not seem to realize that almost 500,000 jobs in Karachi, 400,000 in the industrial sector and 100,000 domestic servants have been taken up by illegal Bangladeshi (and other) immigrants, trekking through India as a transient population to the Middle East, electing to stay in Pakistan because of the Middle East downturn. The question arises, why do our industrialists prefer Contract Bangladeshi labour? Simple, they cannot form Unions (to avoid the purview of the law) thus avoiding protest of any kind but also they are paid much below the legal minimum wages and deprived of relevant benefits eg. medical, bonuses, educational, housing, etc. The industrialists have a neat trouble free labour-package, but genuine Pakistani blue-collar workers, both from Karachi and up-country are denied jobs in the already scarce market.
Two great achievements of the last PPP regime was the initiation of ESSI and EOBI, however the present management of is a disaster, both institutions ridden with corruption. These funds are collected and managed by the Provincial Governments with a Federal entity for the Federal Capital. To give one documented example, a company in Islamabad had about a thousand workers on contract with various foreign embassies but never paid dues for more than a 100 for over 10 years with the connivance of the staff of the monitoring ESSI/EOBI organisations, no notice being taken of this chicanery right under the noses of the Federal Government in Islamabad.
The ESSIs are supposed to provide medical coverage for the workers and their families (rather than death and injury benefits), the hospitals are either non-existent or sparsely equipped with doctors, nurses and/or equipment. EOBI is supposed to pay pensions to retired workers equivalent to more than half their last salary, how many workers have retired, how many are being given regular pension? The laws must be changed so that every corporate unit must choose one insurance company to give all dues meant for social security and other contributions (approximately 7 per cent of the gross salary paid to each staff member) which will include social security, worker’s compensation, etc. Similarly EOBI payments (5 per cent of gross salary) may go straight into a National Pension Fund, the financial structure being modelled on something like NIT or ICP, etc. The list of staff members and their dependants must be supplied in triplicate showing their salaries. Each staff member must be given a National Worker Number (NWN). The insurance company and the National Pension Fund should keep one copy, return two duly attested (including original) for the payment received back to the company for their record. When making tax returns, original copies must be submitted as proof of actual salaries paid. The selected insurance company must provide for complete medical cover for the staff and their dependants. The Army’s Field Ambulance Units could be gainfully employed during peacetime managing the Hospitals and Clinics so created. Similarly the Pension Funds would look after individuals post-retirement. The ESSI and EOBI institutions should be cut down to a regulatory staff only to ensure that in the process the insurance companies and National Pension Fund do not get into any shenanigans, the process is kept smooth and to keep computerized tabs about transfers made in the rolls when the employees change jobs, the NWN coming handy. Without the original copy of payments made with list of staff members and their dependants, income tax should disallow expenditures shown against staff salaries. By adding National ID Card Number and Income Tax Numbers, the Income Tax can also add such personnel to their rolls who should be income tax payers.
The Insurance Companies and Pension Funds can force-multiply the money collected and manifold benefits can accrue out of reinvestment in industry and commerce but we are limited by space to discuss only those ideas which are badly needed for labour welfare and contentment. For example, investment by the National Pension Fund in housing schemes will directly benefit labour.
A major portion of our Labour Class works in the agriculture fields, no known labour laws are applicable to them. They must be brought forthwith under the aegis of our Labour Laws with all ESSI and EOBI rules applicable to the agriculture sector. A preponderance of agriculture landlords in Parliament may manage to keep the sector free of taxes of all kind, the bonded slavery of our agricultural workers must end. The PPP is essentially supposed to be a party of the poor, there is nobody as poor as our tillers who slave in the sun, day in and day out, eking out a miserable existence, their only link with the present the transistor radio (or the occasional TV and/or VCR) while they might as well be living in the Middle Ages, so backward is their livelihood. Ms Benazir should give substance to the rhetoric about the poor, there is no better place than to start from her own Zamindara origins. While our peasants keep this country self-sufficient in food, it is a national disgrace that they themselves are kept in want, misery, poverty, hunger and disease, if not bonded to their agriculture masters than to the omnipresent loan sharks, they are perennially in hock.
A sound labour policy, one that is ambitious but can be implemented, needs to be annunciated. Jobs must be provided, labour’s rights must not be denied. The Government must make the business community accountable for their employees by bringing in innovative provisions into the existing laws. The only way to ensure a sound economic progression is to take care of the human machinery that powers the economic effort. In this respect there is a dire shortage of technical training schools for labour at the Union/District Council level in the industrial, commercial and agriculture fields. Catching the worker’s imagination, Ms Benazir has to translate that into succour for her supporters while at the same time ensuring that economic discipline is not disturbed by Unions taking law into their own hands. Vested interests will always ensure that workers are denied their genuine rights, it would be a tragedy if the PPP cannot bring about genuine labour emancipation.
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