This research report was written for the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) in 2017.
The PILER 2016 Report on the Status of Labour Rights, sixth in the series, based on secondary research, aims to present an overview of the status of labour and the issues in the year impacting labour directly or indirectly.
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This report is a component of a multi-stakeholder programme led by the Ethical Trading Initiative in partnership with the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) started in 2018.
Pakistan is a major exporter of high-quality surgical instruments, produced in the Sialkot region, that are used in public and private health authorities
in Europe and the USA. Over the past decade a number of in-depth studies have highlighted instances of severe labour exploitation and child labour within the industry. There have been some improvements in compliance with international labour standards from exporting factories in Sialkot. However, there is little visibility or oversight of the lower tiers of the supply chain where exploitation is known to be prevalent.
This report builds on existing knowledge of the sector and its challenges. It set out to understand the root causes of poor labour standards and to identify the actual and potential roles and responsibilities of all of the key stakeholders in the global value chain. The aim was to identify recommendations that could deliver long- term solutions to these complex, endemic problems.
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Labour Standards in Pakistan’s Surgical Instruments Sector:
a Synthesis Report
This research report was written for the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) in 2015.
The PILER 2015 Report on the Status of Labour Rights, fifth in the series, based on secondary research, aims to present an overview of the status of labour and the issues in the year impacting labour directly or indirectly. Currently, Pakistan has a labour force of 61.04 million, engaged in diverse sectors of economy, at various levels of occupations. The bulk of our non-agriculture labour force, 72.6 per cent, is employed in the informal economy and if we include agricultural work force, the overwhelming labour force is toiling under informal work arrangements, and the key issue with the informal economy is its lack of documentation.
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Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023
Unions perform multiple economically valuable functions… — Richard B. Freeman
IN times of erosion of trust in our institutions — parliament, the judiciary, army and the state — it is challenging to talk about labour unions struggling on the fringes for decades and held in low esteem by our elite and in mass opinion.
But it is worthwhile to reiterate that unions are an important component of labour market institutions tasked with functions essential for a just and sustainable economy.
Continue readingPublished in Dawn, March 18th, 2023
THREE years have gone by since the WHO declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Termed as the world’s most serious humanitarian crisis since World War II, it is still being debated whether the pandemic is over or not as new infections and deaths occur in a number of countries. By February 2023, 6.8 million people had died. Besides, hundreds of millions of people lost jobs globally, millions saw their salaries cut or work hours reduced. Most countries have not yet returned to the levels of employment and hours worked before the outbreak. According to an ILO report, informality and working poverty have risen further with the Covid-19 crisis.
Continue readingPublished in Dawn, March 4th, 2023
NATURAL gas has played a major role in Pakistan’s energy matrix since the first large reserve was discovered in Sui, Balochistan, in 1952. Significant gas fields of smaller sizes were discovered subsequently and made operational in the provinces, particularly Sindh where the gas reserve at Mari was discovered in 1956, and the Qadirpur and Miano gas fields in the 1990s. Since then, exploration, discoveries and oil and gas production have continued.
Oil and gas extraction requires huge capital, sophisticated technology and highly skilled labour. The first beneficiaries are thus the investors — operating companies and management (national or global corporations).
Continue readingPublished in Dawn, December 30th, 2022
WHILE the global textile and apparel industry is in the process of moving into total digital transformation, Pakistani industry is struggling with basic workplace safety issues. So how can the Pakistan Accord on Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry be a game changer? Precisely because a sound infrastructure is the edifice the industry — any industry, especially a labour-intensive industry — is built upon. If the entire industry endorses, owns and implements the Accord, which is to be launched in January 2023, it can trigger a process of change for the better.
Continue readingPublished in Dawn, May 29th, 2022
TRADE unions are in a flux the world over. The first two decades of the 21st century, characterised by heady globalisation and ruthless neoliberalism, accelerated the downfall of workers’ associations. The last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic came as a jolt. Trade unions realised it was time to do or die; change or bust.
One could sense a change in their perspective while listening to over 80 trade unionists and labour activists of the four provinces who gathered in Karachi recently and talked their hearts out. Consumed by internal weaknesses and worn out by persistent challenges, the senior leadership, though jaded, still exuded a passion for a just world of work and a desire to leave something tangible for posterity.
Continue readingPublished in Dawn, December 20th, 2022
“Once you’re in their books, you’re done for. … they’ll ask you what you do, how much tax you pay, where you’re registered, how much you make, and are you left wing or right wing.”— Mustafa Efendi, a character in A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk
WHEN you think of informal labour in Türkiye, the image that comes to your mind, if you read this, is the life of a street vendor in Istanbul, unfolding amidst diverse layers of changes: personal, social, political, environmental, ecological in the wake of urbanisation and the melding of tradition with modernity. The saga of change, chronicled by Pamuk in the novel, spans four decades from the 1980s to 2000s.
Continue readingPublished in Dawn, November 28th, 2022
“All happiness depends on courage and work” — Balzac
A PARADIGM shift is taking place in the labour market of the world’s richest economy. Attributed to the shift in the mindset of workers, spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation, the New Collar work and an upsurge in unionising are reshaping the US workforce.
After the lockdowns and the end of enhanced unemployment benefits they received from the state during the pandemic, workers have been re-evaluating their priorities and rethinking their work-life balance. Many have found the courage to take the plunge out of low-paid, stressful work, to learn something new and transition to ‘new-collar’ work, search for online, work-from-home options, or find a better paid, less stressful job. Others are opting for a work-free life, joining the anti-work movement, not with an aim to a lifetime of idling but “to start a conversation, to problematise work”.
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Zeenat Hisam 