Difficult Working Conditions For Clerical and Low Income Workers across Pakistan
By Kaukab Tahir Shairani
21 April 2016
Over the past many years, in fact decades traversing to the recent past, the conditions of Clerical Staff in Pakistan have only deteriorated. Though little timely developments may happen, there is hardly any permanent stabilization of the atrocities faced by such low income workers.A small step forward has been the formation of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA). Despite this organization, clerical staff in Pakistan has witnessed low ebb in regards to their rights, payment of salaries and protection of human rights. In fact, clerical staff in Pakistan has continually fought against violation of human rights but it is saddening that the situation only worsens, if nothing less.
It is assertive to say that low income staff in Pakistan has undergone an excruciating migraine for past many years. The greatest plight for even the richest is to be deprived from their salaries. Among the clerks, such disruptions extend as long as six months, or sometimes, even longer. In response to this deprivation, workers begin to protest. Unfortunately, most protests also lead to no fruition.
Focusing categorically on the clerical staff of Pakistan, various cities and their appointed staff have been left to stray for too long. In Karachi, labor and trade unions have urged the government to review the Factories Act 1934 in order to implement health and safety laws for workers. Delayed payments and not being provided health and safety rights has been a major concern. This was raised to the government in September 2011, in Karachi, in a Press Conference in which the Executive Director Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER) along with other trade union leaders made a suggestion that all workers should be registered under government social security institution under a universal domain.
Rights of these workers are violated due to the criminal negligence of Federal and Provincial Governments. This situation has aggravated by the absence of a functional system of local government. Workers have united to protest that parliamentarians want to gain control of all government funds.
Clerical staffs such as factory workers have seamlessly suffered atrocities due to lack of governance. One of the worst fires in the countrywide broke hell on Ali Enterprises, a garment factory in Baldia in Karachi. Over 250 workers lost their lives in it in 2012, and numerous were injured. After the transition of the government from PPP to PML-N in 2013, the Sindh Minister for industries, Rauf Siddiqui, appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to provide Rs. 3000 each to the families of the bereaved. As a result, it was found that many factories were not even registered; Ali Enterprises being an example of the same.
Thereafter, Chief of PILER Karamat Ali stated that workers have been facing difficult conditions as a yearly minimum wage increase is not implemented to their salaries. And in fact, remunerations for workers have been at a decline, and most of them do not even receive their full salary.
Karamat Ali also pointed out that Factory Art 1934 is not being implemented, neither are factories inspected against human rights violations. It is also reported that there is no established channel of paying the heirs of the deceased factory workers. Most employees are hired on a contract, and therefore, the employer does not feel incumbent upon providing any facilities to workers. Workers or their families are paid no compensation for any losses that they may require. Most of the staff is unregistered and therefore, deprived of social security benefits.
In regards to the violation of the Factory Act of 1934, it is reported by The Daily Times that the government is the one to protect the interests of factory owners. The act is violated to an extent that the employer does not submit a return each year, or an inspection report.
Factory owners in Karachi have used the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to suppress legal rights of workers. The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) has persistently warned these owners to withhold such practices against the workers. The Deputy General Secretary of the NTUF reported that about 94% workers in Karachi are still unregistered. And also 2-3% of the remainder has a social security cover.
Eight days after the APS attack in which 130 innocent lives were taken PM Shareef passed the National action plan and called it as "a defining moment for Pakistan."
Workers in Karachi, as well as Sindh have continuously protested that their salaries be paid on time, health and safety laws be protected, compensations to be made on time and that they should be given a social security cover. But booking trade unions under the ATA stops the formation of unions.
Currently, a minimum wage rate is Rs. 12000 but 95% workers are deprived of this rate. Majority of private industries make workers work up to 14 hours a day, and did not pay overtime. Most industrialists use a contractual system to escape the documentation process of meeting basic rights of their workers. In private industries, most employers do not issue an appointment letter, due to which workers remain unregistered with trade union. This leaves them disabled of redeeming any social benefits.
An instance has been reported in Faisalabad where six laborers were sentenced a 490-year long imprisonment only because they fought for imposition of labor laws.
Labor Leaders have also observed that the rules imposed by the International Labor Organizations are openly being violated. Workers are forced to work up to 12 hours a day, and not even paid the minimum prescribed wage by the government. A case reported two years ago in Karachi stated six laborers were released on bail from jail as their employers lodged fake cases on them when the workers appealed that their rights should be guarded, that is, payment of basic wage and a weekly holiday. Labor Laws are also being violated when private industries do not pay the deserved share of profit to the employees. Also, it was established that a minimum amount of over Rs. 18000/- is required to make ends meet, above the poverty line. Most privately employed workers are not even paid as low as Rs. 8000.
The report was released just a month after a controversial leak in Supreme Court in-camera session. The ISI revealed to the bench that at least 6,523 phone numbers were tapped by ISI in February, 6,819 in March, 6,742 in April and 6,856 in May, 2015.
Workers in Sukkur complained that they were not being paid their basic salary. Upon protesting, the local government stated that there are not enough funds to accommodate 800 employees and 700 pensioners. Despite these crises, more workers are constantly being hired.
The aforesaid atrocities are prevalent not only among factory workers; but also among young doctors, policemen etc. In Lahore, Young Doctors carried out protests for the restoration of abolished paid 199 house job positions.
Another notable instance reported is the disparity in salaries between policemen of the Federal Capital and rest of the country. Policemen who are supposed to face continued adversities in the wake of terrorism, target killing, corruption and communal violence are also suffering from financial misery. Policemen in the Federal Capital of Islamabad are getting more than double the salaries and other benefits as compared to the other four provinces across the country. This has caused anger among the provincial police officials. Leading newspapers across the country such as Jang and The News conducted a study that entailed a steep disparity between salaries of policemen across the country and in the Federal Capital. It stated that police officials in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Rawalpindi get almost the same amount of remuneration. However, a constable in Islamabad earns the same amount as an inspector in Karachi, approximately Rs. 35000.
Reports have suggested that if an Islamabad constable earns Rs. 48000, the counterpart in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar vary between Rs. 21000 to Rs Rs. 30000. The monthly salary of an ASI in Islamabad is about Rs. 45000, while the same position holder in Rawalpindi, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore earns an amount somewhere between Rs. 21000 to Rs. 31000. Provincial police officials note this difference to be stark and they say that it affects their lives considerably.
Some light has been shed on the woes of Pakistan Cotton Standard Institute (PCSI) employees. A letter by Bakhtiar Ahmad talks about why this organization was formed and how it aimed to be the central cotton sector and would accordingly lead to enhancement in exports of textiles. A post as important as the Director of the Institute has been lying vacant for the past fifteen years. A worse impact is on the employees. She also said that poor management has made working here with infeasible. Nonpayment of salaries and failure to grand proper employee rights has turned the employees mundane and an inefficient lot. Bakhtiar Ahmad appealed to the Prime Minister to immediately secure the disgruntled state of these employees.
It is found overtime that the state of clerical and low income earners across the country has been worsening. There are no major reforms being introduced to improve the system. These employees lack job security, and so much so, that they also lack security of salary. Salaries are piled unpaid for months. In retaliation to this, the workers protest, and those protests only result in more issued reforms, implementation of which does not practically happen.
The greatest source of exploitation to these workers is private owners. These private owners exist in form of private industrialists or factory owners who do not issue appointment letters, which disables the employee to obtain any benefits from trade or labor unions. These owners also exist in form employers who employ domestic staff in their houses and fail to pay even the minimal lawfully prescribed wage. These employees, in real terms earn much lesser.
Clerks and low income workers across Pakistan have been drooped into this crisis of disparity and unfair treatment for the past many years. Even in big cities like Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Islamabad, this disparity no longer caters to increased salaries. In fact, it has only made the poor poorer.