KARACHI:Trade union and labour support organizations on Saturday welcomed the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in which the apex court has held that the contract workers have legitimate and fundamental right to form a union or becoming a part of it and take part in the union referendum or elections.
In a joint statement Karamat Ali, Executive Director, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER); Nasir Mansoor, Secretary General, National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), Habibuddin Junaidi, President, Peoples Labour Bureau Sindh; Liaqat Sahi, Democratic Workers Union State Bank of Pakistan; Ms. Zehra Khan, Home-based Women Workers Federation; Ms. Farhat Parveen, NOW Communities and others underlined the need for implementation of the order in all corporation in the country.
The Supreme Court Judge Justice Maqbool Baqar, who was heading a two-member bench wrote in the judgment on a petition filed by Sui Southern Gas Company management against an Islamabad High Court’s verdict that the purported arrangement/contract between the company and their purported labour contractors could not be allowed to be used as a device to deprive the workers of their legitimate and fundamental rights to forming a union or becoming part of it.
The labour leaders said that since introduction of neo-liberal economic policies in the country the companies have started employing their workers and employees on contract and third-party system, in which the workers do not have legal labour rights.
Even they are deprived of their constitutional right of association and they are not allowed to form trade unions. The trade unions in many nationalized companies like banks have been demolished as the banks and corporations have started contract employment system.
Similarly, in many private sector companies the management avoid appointing employees on regular basis, which deprive the workers their rights of social security and other benefits including right to join a trade union. They lauded the judgment and said that the Supreme Court’s judgment would set a precedence and would strengthen the trade union movement in the country.
Currently out of total 65.5 million total workforce of Pakistan only 2-3 percent workers are members of any trade unions and an overwhelming majority of workers are deprived of their legal rights of social security, pension and joining their trade unions.