KARACHI: Trade unions, labour and peasants leaders on Sunday demanded to provide matching representation to the workers in the national parliament and all provincial assemblies according to their population as in the current electoral system, working people cannot reach to law making bodies. A set of recommendations demanded reservation of the seats for workers and nomination of labour leaders by political parties on general elections. The recommendations were made at the concluding session of the two-day Sindh Labour Conference organized by National Labour Council (NLC) in collaboration with Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee and Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) at PILER Center here. The Sindh Labour Conference participants were unanimous in their views that in the sitting assemblies there is no representation of workers so their issues are not discussed and solved. The feudal and elites are sitting, who even do not speak about problems of working class, they said. The participants demanded the provincial Sindh government to provide universal social security facilities to all citizens. For this purpose they demanded to register all the workers with Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI) and other labour welfare organizations. The representatives of trade unions demanded to make all the labour laws according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions and Constitution of Pakistan. Remove all exclusions and labour laws should be implemented on all sectors. Appointment letter should be provided to all employees and third-party contract system should be abolished as it is exploitative in nature, they demanded. The labour leaders decried non-implementation of the existing labour laws especially the laws related to labour inspections and occupational health and safety at the work place. Due to improper labour inspection system, the industrial accidents happened and many of them are not reported. A major demand of the workers was to appoint new labour inspectors according to proportion of factories and half of them must be women. The participants expressed concern over absence of proper data about trade unions, their membership in Sindh and underlined the need to conduct an extensive survey to ascertain the existence of trade unions. They demanded to set up Hari courts at district level to hear the cases related to Sindh Tenancy Act. They also called for making rules of business for registration of trade unions by agriculture workers and fishermen under the Sindh Industrial Relations Act 2013. The workers demanded the government of Pakistan to ratify the ILO Conventions regarding Home Based Workers and Domestic Workers. The Sindh government has already made a policy regarding Home Based Workers, but it has yet to be announced. They demanded immediate announcement of the Policy and making relevant legislations regarding home based workers. On the last day of the labour conference six groups of participants were formed to make recommendations which would be submitted to Sindh government for inclusion in the forthcoming provincial tripartite labour conference scheduled to be held early next month. Chairperson of Sindh Human Rights Commission Justice (Retd.) Majida Razvi was the chief guest at the concluding session of the conference. She agreed to the recommendations that women labour inspectors be appointed in the Labour departments so the inspection be made in an effective way particularly where women are employed in a large number like textile garments factories etc. She said Hari and agriculture workers are deprived of their fundamental rights because they are not considered as workers in the law. Due to this agriculture workers are facing hardships due to weaker implementation of the relevant laws. She underlined the need for promotion of cooperatives in the agriculture sector, which would benefit the small growers in rural areas. Secretary of provincial labour department Abdul Rasheed Solangi said that after 18th Amendment, Sindh is the first province where the mandatory Tripartite Labour Conference is being held in September. Labour leaders are taken into confidence in all arrangements of the conference, he added. A home work for formation of relevant committees have been completed and the provincial Labour Department would make the future Labour Policy from those recommendations, he informed. Convener of Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee Habibuddin Junaidi, who presided over the concluding session said in his remarks that reforms in the labour welfare institutions are needed. Published in Daily Times, August 14th 2017.