More than 300 workers die
in Pakistan due to fire in two factories, Criminal negligence by
government and employers, they should be brought to justice for killing
workers
By Khalid Mahmood
More than 289 textile
workers in Karachi and 25 shoe makers in Lahore died due to fires in
factories Tuesday, 11 September 2012. This has been the biggest loss of
lives of workers in any industrial accident in Pakistan. The cruel
negligence of governments in Sindh and Punjab and also of the federal
government has resulted in such a huge loss of lives of the poor of
poorest.
Looking at the
engulfed with fire fact
ories on television, I could imagine the
working conditions inside these factories; with very small working place
for each worker, no proper ventilation system, only one exit, no fire
safety equipment and full with chemicals. And this horrifying situation
still exists in many thousand other small factories in all the big
cities of Pakistan. Sindh and Punjab both provinces had ban on labour
inspection of factories till last year. Still the labour department
officials cannot inspect the factories without prior approval from the
employer. And the level of corruption existing in labour departments is
another story to deprive workers from their basic rights.
Today the Interior minister Rehman Malik says that FIA will investigate
these factory fires. Irony is that government is still not realizing its
responsibility of implementing laws with political will which protect of
basic rights of the workers including safe working conditions and
freedom of association but it wants to investigate it only as another
crime. No doubt it is big crime and should be investigated and
responsible persons from employers and from governments should be
brought to justice but government should show its willingness to
implement labour laws with true spirit and should provide tools and
trainings to its officials to monitor working places in a better way.
Emergence of these kind of small working place has to do a lot with the
economic policies our governments have adopted in last few decades.
These policies of neo-liberal globalization have reduced the big and
safe working places into small factories through contractualisation and
sub-contractualisation. Many big companies and multinational companies
are having their products done at these small factories without safe
working conditions and without freedom of association.
Labour Education Foundation and its member trade unions are expressing
their grief and are showing solidarity with families who lost their
loved ones in these incidents. We demand that government should
immediately pay Rs. 1 million to each family of dead workers and should
bring the responsible persons to justice. Government should also
immediately start mapping such dangerous working places all across
Pakistan and force employers to make working conditions safe. Government
should also curb the mentality of employers who create hurdles to make
it impossible for workers to form independent trade unions and raise
their voices against such dangerous working conditions.
|