Daily Times

KARACHI: Nasir Mansoor, deputy general secretary National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and Bashir Mehmoodan Ship breaking Workers Union Gadani have strongly condemned in a joint statement Ship Breaking Owners Association and Chamber of Commerce & Industries representatives’ press conference in which they didn’t offer any reference to their commitment to respect and implement Occupational Health & Safety (OSH) standards at ship breaking yards.

They said that the oil tanker fire tragedy on Nov1 speaks loudly about breach of labor laws which protect workers rights and lives but the owners and industrialists only speak about their business and profits but haven’t drawn any lesson from their criminal negligence which has caused large number of deaths, injuries & miseries being unemployed in addition .

We demand through this statement to withdraw section 144 and restore the ship dismantling process , labor laws including health and safety measures should be implemented in true spirit, compensation awarded to the deceased workers should be 3million to ‘ families and 500,000 to injured workers , the where abouts of missing workers should be communicated to their families, government should adopt ship breaking codes on light of Hong Kong Convention and ILO guidelines for South Asia and third party contract (jamadari) system should be abolished and right of collective bargaining should be ascertained through referendum.