The tinkling choorian hold an inexplicable allure. And, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that very few women in our part of the world can resist the charm of these delicate, multihued glass bangles. However, despite being a popular ornament, hardly any public awareness exists about the pain and trouble that hundreds and thousands of workers endure in manufacturing these bangles. Their continued exploitation at the hands of their employers and the hazards they put themselves in to eke out a living are shocking and one wonders if any labour laws exist in the country to protect the rights of these workers?
According to an estimate, there are around 52 big and small bangle-making factories in Hyderabad, the second major glass bangle industry in Asia after Ferozabad, India. Bangle-making is popular all over Hyderabad and over 400,000 people are associated with this profession in different parts of the district.
The manufacturing of bangles involves many processes, the two major procedures being melting and molding of glass and joining the bangle in a perfect balance. The first part of the process is largely done in factories while for the latter the contractors hand over the unfinished bangles to the workers, mostly women, operating from homes.
No safety equipment is available to workers in factories or homes who work in close contact with glass particles, gases and poisonous fumes of kerosene oil that contain carbon particles, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide along with cancer producing mixture of several organic gases. Complaints of asthma, tuberculosis, arthritis, and weakening eyesight are quite common among the workers. They often hurt their fingers while handling glass bangles and are at a constant risk of damaging their eyes with glass particles present in the working environment.
But, despite all these risks, most of them don’t receive any help, medical or otherwise, from the contractors or the factory owners except a meagre salary. “The factory workers work in two shifts and earn Rs100 to Rs150 per day. For those working at home the rates for joining, straightening and other related works vary from Rs3.50 to Rs8 for a bundle of 360 bangles,” says Rehan Yousufzai, President Choori Welding Contractors and Workers Union, Hyderabad.
Bangle workers are one of the most oppressed sections of the factory workers. Nevertheless, similar violations of human and labour rights exist in thousands of factories in the country, both in the formal and informal sectors, where employers trample the rights of labourers and subject them to abuse if they demand their rights.
Abject poverty, increasing unemployment, price-hikes and persistent denial of justice have pushed the poor to the wall. While the labourer is forced to work for more than eight hours and is paid less than Rs3,000 (the minimum wage fixed by the government), with no benefit of any sort, the employer keeps the government officials ‘happy’ to avoid accountability. If the worker dares to file a case, the cumbersome legal procedures shatter all his hopes for justice and he is forced either to a compromise with the employer or leave the job.
“The poor are at the mercy of factory owners who can throw them out any time they want to. The salary they show in the register is different from what they actually pay the worker as people work here for 12 hours for as low as Rs1,700 to Rs2,500 wage per month, which is too not paid on time. There is no medical or social security cover or concept of sick leave. Children do menial jobs in restaurants, hotels and other places to complement the family income,” says Shehzad Ahmed who works in a garment factory in Landhi.
Talking about the problems women face in factories, Rehana Yasmeen of Pakistan Textile Workers Union (PTWU) said that women are paid less as compared to their male colleagues. Late evening shifts are a nightmare as it makes them more vulnerable to sexual harassment. No pick-and-drop transport service is provided to them. There are women who have been working for as long as 25 to 30 years and have had to change quite a few factories during that time either because contractors did not pay them or they were not granted maternity or sick leaves.
When asked how much support the union extends in addressing their problems, Yasmin said that generally women prefer to tolerate abuse rather than bring the issue out in the open. However, when a problem is brought to their notice they take up the matter with the concerned departments. For instance, she said, a story of the abuse of a woman working in a factory in Landhi was printed in the Press in 2004. No FIR was lodged in the case. PTWU took up the issue along with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and an FIR was registered. A meeting was called with the concerned factory owner and the manager, as a result of which the manager apologized, arranged for the medical treatment of the victim and later reinstated her.
However, she admitted that many cases go unreported and justice is usually illusive. For instance, in the same year, a 17-year-old girl was raped by a supervisor and two other men of the same factory in Landhi. The police arrested two accused after some newspapers printed the story about the girl who got pregnant. But, the case could not be pursued as the girl with her family migrated to Punjab.
One of the basic facilities, she pointed out, that should be provided to women factory workers is separate toilets. “Women face a lot of embarrassment sharing the toilet with men. Such working conditions make women prone to various ailments. They should at least be entitled to pregnancy leave and employers should be prohibited from making them stay late. She observed that the bill passed by the National Assembly in August 2005 which permits women workers to stay at factories till 10pm, is a complete injustice towards women.
The hotel industry was under the Factories Act till 1993, but was later removed and declared as a service. Ghulam Mehboob of PC Workers Union claims that it was mainly done to protect the interests of hotel owners who, after the change in the law through a court order, do not have to give a number of benefits to their employees.
Mehboob along with 300 union workers filed a petition in the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) in 2001, against the management of the hotel they were working with for harassing employees to leave the job. Reacting to this, the hotel management got 16 fake cases registered against them and he with his 25 colleagues were beaten up at the CIA Centre. They remained in confinement for 16 days, shackled and blindfolded. Except three of their union leaders, including him, all were released. They were jailed under criminal cases and later released on bail. Today, there are about 400 cases concerning the union-management tussle pending in different courts.
About legal complications and the working of labor judiciary, he said: "Our case against the management has been pending in the labour court for the last four years. So far the court has not been able to discuss the main petition as it is still in the process of deciding the objections raised against it. Under the law, the case should be decided within a year and there is no need of a lawyer either to represent the two parties. But, this is not what’s happening.
“While the influential employer hires a lawyer for a fat fee, the poor run from pillar to post and take loans from acquaintances to pay the lawyer’s fee. Another factor which delays legal proceedings is the appointment of civil judges in the labour courts. They have no knowledge of the relevant laws and need time to read the laws and understand the case. The labour department, which was a platform to solve disputes, is now only serving the interests of employers. And last, but not the least, if the worker does get a reinstatement order, the employers can still refuse him a job on the pretext that his post has been abolished.”
Though there are some government institutions like Sessi (Sindh Employees Social Security Institution) which are working for the welfare of workers, their role is limited. For instance, Sessi only covers 325,000 registered workers out of the total work force of an estimated 1.4 million of the formal sector in Sindh. Workers with a salary up to Rs5,000 are entitled to its benefits which include medical cover (also for dependents), sickness, injury, disability and maternity benefits. Factory owners avoid registration with Sessi as in that case, they have to pay seven per cent of the employees share in profit as contribution to the institution for providing benefits.
Commenting on the situation, Secretary General National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan (NTUFP) Saleem Raza, says that the present labour policy does not reflect the aspirations of the workers and employers as their suggestions were not incorporated. The sincerity of successive governments with the labour class can be judged from the fact that the tripartite conference for the formation of a labour policy, which is supposed to be held every three years, was held after 13 years in 2002 and the subsequent policy was only aimed at achieving the bureaucracy’s agenda.
“Apart from the flawed laws, the problem we are facing is with the government machinery, the labour department and the labour judiciary, whose job it is to ensure the implementation of laws, but they have become corrupt. The result is that 80 per cent of the employees in the formal sector, comprising factories which are registered and directly come under the labour laws, work without any appointment letter. The worst case that can be mentioned here is of a textile mill which has a work force of 11,300 but shows only 1,300 workers on the books. In other words, 10,000 workers don’t have any documentary proof of being associated with the establishment, and hence can’t fight for their rights in case of injustices.
“The government continues to deny workers their most basic right and that is to form a union. With so many strings attached, only eight per cent of the workers are organised under trade unions. The legal department of NTUFP has some 1,150 cases pending in the courts. Of them, 150 cases have been pending for more than five years.”
About the anti-worker clauses of IRO 2002, Raza said, “Previously, the employer was not only fined but sentenced for not implementing a court order. The government removed the sentencing clause through the IRO, giving an easy way out to the employer to pay the fine and get away with an injustice. The ordinance also limits the definition of a worker. For instance, the security staff at a factory are not considered as workers, and the right to a trade union has been further curtailed and it is left up to the government to register them or not.
“The right to reinstatement has also been taken over. Earlier, if the worker was wrongly expelled he had to be reinstated but now it’s up to the court to either reinstate the employee or grant him 12 to 13 months salary. Also, the right of the union to have the factory’s accounts re-audited has been withdrawn. Many conditions have also been imposed on strikes and the government can ban them for holding a strike. This draconian law passed by the existing government still exists as an ordinance because it was never presented in the form of a bill before the National Assembly for discussion to be adopted as a law.”
Is there any hope for change? To this, Raza said that Pakistan has become a dumping ground of foreign goods owing to faulty government policies. The import tariff is gradually being reduced while taxation of manufacturing sector has been increased with the result that local products have become costlier as compared to foreign goods.
“Considering this situation, trade unions and industrialists have formed an organisation, the Workers Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan. Its aim is to solve all the basic issues confronting workers and employers to face the challenges of WTO. The council recommended a draft bill but the government did not consider it and did just the opposite. Again, a draft bill has been prepared and submitted to the government, but workers’ organisations do not know what will be its fate as copies of the amendments the government intends to bring have not been given to them for input,” states Raza.