KARACHI: The National Labour Council (NLC) and Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) have expressed serious concern over grave violation of labour laws by the brand textile manufacturers, especially the local brands like Khaadi that do not provide safe working places and remove workers when they demand their due rights.
Khaadi had removed 32 workers before Ramzan and despite protests and NIRC instructions, Khaadi has not reinstated these workers.
In a statement here on Sunday, NLC and PILER leaders Karamat Ali, Latif Nizamani, Habibuddin Junaidi, Shafiq Ghauri, Saeed Baloch and others said these textile brand manufacturers often provide third-party employment to the workers and pay them wages, in many cases, less than the official minimum wages for unskilled workers that is fixed at Rs 15,000 per month.
The workers are not allowed to avail leaves and in the case of leave in emergencies, their wages are deducted for that period.
The workers complain that they work for more than 12 hours instead of 8 hours a day and no compensation is provided for their extra work. The owners demand more productions per worker when they receive additional orders. These textile manufacturing companies earn millions of rupees from their sale in local markets during Ramzan but avoid proper payments to their employees. Many of these textile manufactures also export their products.
The working conditions in these textile brands are unsafe as most of the companies often put locks on doors during the work hours on the pretext to avoid theft. Over 250 workers had lost lives in Ali
Over 250 workers were killed at Ali Enterprises, a garments manufacturing factory, in SITE Baldia in 2012 because the owners had locked all the exit points while workers were busy in doing their jobs inside the premises.
The provincial labour department, which is responsible for ensuring safe working conditions and health and safety of workers in the work places but the labour inspections system is inadequate as there is a small number of labour inspectors to cover all industries. This has encouraged the manufacturers to violate labour laws. The labour leaders said the employers and industries associations should take measures to ensure safe working conditions at the work places and provision of all rights to the workers.
