Daily Times

KARACHI: ‘Lives of thousands of Pakistani ship-breaking workers are at the stake because the government is not ready to intervene and implement workplace safety and health rules at the ship breaking yards,’ said leading labour leaders while addressing a protest rally held on Thursday.

The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) held a rally on the occasion of the second anniversary of ‘November 1, 2016 mishap’ at Gadani ship breaking yard in which 29 workers had died when a Japanese oil tanker caught fire.

The rally was led by NTUF President Muhammad Rafiq Baloch and a large number of workers attended it to pay homage to the martyred workers. The rally ended at the Yard Number 54, where two years ago a ship named Fudreal M-T_Aces had caught fire and twenty-nine workers had died. Bodies of only 25 workers were found and more than other 50 workers had received burn injuries.

Addressing the rally, NTUF deputy general secretary Nasir Mansoor said that despite the passage of two years, there was still no improvement in the lives as well as working conditions of thousands of ship breakers. He said after the mishap a Senate committee headed by federal minister for Defense Production was set up in addition to a committee of national assembly parliamentarians and a Balochistan government-led investigation but nothing concrete had come out of all this so far. He said this demonstrated how apathetic the government was.

He said due to this negative attitude of the government, accident soccured regularly at Gadani and the lives of ship breaking workers were still at the stake. He said the workers’ bodies had already submitted a draft bill on ship breaking to the government but the government was not interested in holding serious talks on it or promoting the ship breaking industry to take measures for the worker’s safety.

He said that despite repeated promises of the government, the owners and contractors of ships were not ready to see implementation of laws at Gadani and they had made the Gadani ship breaking yard virtually as their fiefdom. “The workers are forced to live in almost slavery conditions,” he added. NTUF President Rafiq Baloch said that the blood of 29 martyred workers of Gadani tragedy would not go to waste. He said that the struggle to get labour laws implemented in ship breaking sector and ensure that ship breakers got their constitutional rights continued.

He said that the Labor Department, Balochistan Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESS), Employees’ Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI), Environmental department and other relevant departments were making a mockery out of labour laws and nothing taking effective measures to put an end to industrial mishaps and workplace accidents.

He further said that the main reason of lawlessness in the ship breaking yard was illegal Jammadari labour contract system which was being patronised by the owners of ships. He said that a billionaire Jammadar had made a fake labour union to pretend to be the representative of the workers. He said the real laborunion was being stopped from working under several pretexts. He further stated that not a single referendum had been conducted to elect the collective bargaining agent (CBA) since the past fifty years.

The general secretary of Gadani Ship breaking Workers Union, Gul Rehman said that in this 21st century, workers and their families were deprived of clean drinking water, medical care, housing, schools and canteens. “They do not get the facility of paid weekly holiday and double rate overtime,” he said. He added that a fake labour union made by illegal labour contractor was forcibly collecting contributions from workers, while the real labour union was being forced to withdraw. He said that the owners of ships were fully involved in this malpractice.

The labor leaders announced that they along with human rights organisations would file a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) and continue their struggle against anti-worker forces. They said that they were consulting with the leading lawyer and ex-president of SC Bar Association, Justice (r) Rashid A Razvi on this matter.

The rally participants demanded that the worker should be given a weekly holiday. Their wages should be raised by 50percent. They should be given double rate overtime. The workplace safety should be strictly ensured. The draft bill for ship breaking presented by the workers should be discussed in serious consultation process and the Hong Kong ship breaking convention should be ratified. The guidelines of ILO for ship breaking in South Asia should be followed. The right of the workers of making unions should be accepted, and workers should be registered with the social security institutions. The facilities of clean drinking water, canteen, hospital, residential colony and schools should be provided to Gadani workers and the illegal Jamaadari contract labour system should be ended.

Published in Daily Times, November 2^nd 2018.