Now Showing: Oct-Dec 09
1. Chairman’s Column
The year 2009 witnessed a proactive stance on the fight against terrorism that also led to record number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Swat region. Bringing normality to this troubled region, the fight extended to the tribal areas of North Waziristan.
Furthermore, the 19 year old stalemate on sharing financial resources between the federation and provinces and amongst the provinces from the “federal divisible pool” amicably got resolved.
The country also continued with the macro-economic stabilization programme under the standby arrangement (SBA) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This lending though accompanying “painful” stabilization programme with greater focus on fiscal and monetary restrain has now started yielding dividends in the form of increasing foreign exchange reserves, reducing fiscal deficit, containing inflation, improvement in credit ratings and a gradual reduction in the discount rate by the State Bank of Pakistan.
We are also witnessing stability in the value of currency; losing 5 percent compared to 32 percent in 2008. The remittances sent by the overseas Pakistanis continued the rising trend; expected to cross USD 9billion in the fiscal year 2009-2010.
The record of positive developments in 2009 has to stop here. Accounting further development is in the direction that only causes concerns!
The most worrying factor remains the state of economy and the consequent social fall out. The economy would post, second year in a row, a gross domestic product (GDP) that is either less or at best close to the rate at which population is growing.
The indebtedness, both internal and external, has crossed USD100 billion; foreign component alone accounts for over USD51billion. Debt servicing liabilities are surging. Pakistan paid 49 percent of its total revenue collection in 2008-09 as “debt servicing”; it will rise further. The large scale manufacturing sector recorded a negative growth for 13 months. Total investment declined by 6.5 percent; lowest in 40 years.
The Transparency International (TI) report 2009, ranking Pakistan at 139, identifies 10 most corrupt institutions in the country, namely: i) police, ii) electricity, iii) health, iv) revenue, v) education, vi) taxation, vii) judiciary, viii) local government, ix) customs, and x) tendering.
The cost of doing business has substantially increased due to power outages, law and order situation, rising utility bills and indeed corruption.
The combined impact, no wonder, is none else than on unemployment and poverty situation that is aggravating; their levels have surged and are rising. The employment situation has deteriorated further by the “stress” only on containment policy. Low GDP growth would make economy increasingly constrained in generating work opportunities. And those, underemployed – about a tenth of the workforce – would have to remain content with their poorly remunerated work. Furthermore, those “lucky” employed would be increasingly confronted with lowering of wages and changing work patterns. Regular and protected jobs are being replaced with irregular forms of employment.
Unprotected work including outsourcing and contract work is rising.
Institutions responsible for protection of workers’ rights and their working conditions have been seriously constrained by the ban and/or restrictions on “labour inspection”. Whereas, reform of labour laws as well as of the labour welfare and social security institutions is overdue, sincere and participatory efforts in this direction are wanting.
Consolidation of 2009 accomplishments and tackling issues of concerns should be on top of the agenda in 2010.
2. Report on Activities
The activities of the CLAD in the third quarter are briefly recorded here.
CLAD Decent Work Initiative (DWI)
The main goal of this “DWI” is to provide a forum to the stakeholders for developing an action plan for “operationalization of decent work” in the country with a focus on developing a framework for effective implementation of labor inspection, labor protection and employment policies.
The CLAD focused on the follow up of the National consultation organized in Islamabad and reported in the Newsletter of July-September 2009. This mainly included preparatory meetings with the concerned government officials from the provinces of Balochistan and NWF as well as workers’ and employers’ representatives from these two provinces to organize provincial consultative meetings.
CLAD Initiative on Building Trade Union Capacity
The quarter under reference witnessed three in-depth discussion events in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The report prepared by the CLAD Consultant on the discussion and round tables during the first series of meetings was used as the main document. The focus during this time was developing further the understanding with regard to a uniform pattern of union dues and a strategy to organize.
The regional leadership as well as leaders of important plant level unions was the participants in the workshops organized in three cities.
Industrial Relations Act 2008 (IRA-08)
The address of CLAD at the WEBCOP/ILO stakeholders’ consultations on IRA-08, organised in Islamabad on 21 December 2009 also stressed developing consensus on a number of areas and issues including: i) definition of workman and inclusion of “supervisor” as well as “trainee”, ii) minimum membership of a trade union seeking registration, iii) requirements of forming a federation, iv) status of a union neither contesting a referendum nor securing specific percentage, say 15%, of the polled votes [as was provided IRO-2002], v) workers’ participation in management - shop stewards, management committee, joint management board and works council, vi) definition and parties to a settlement, tenure of a CBA, vii) parties entitled to call for a referendum, viii) definition of “industry", ix) unfair labor practices by workmen and employers, and x) appointments of labour judiciary.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Peshawar witnessed the assemblage of industry and union leaders at the national conference on “Corporate Social Responsibility”, organised by the Employers Federation of Pakistan (EFP) on 10 October 2009.
The Governor of NWFP – Awais Ahmad Ghani – chaired the opening and closing sessions. He observed that convening of the event in Peshawar has significance for the NWFP. It gives the signal that a conference attended by over a hundred delegates comprising of business leaders, union representatives, NGOs and academia coming from all over the country as well as representatives of ILO and other foreign organizations is a testimony of the seriousness of the Government as well as of the people of Pakistan to restore peace and bring normalcy to fight any act of terrorism successfully.
The newly elected President of the EFP - Haji Muhammad Javed – was applauded for his services to the industry and developing partnership with workers’ representatives.
The employers’ representatives, in addition to sharing good practices on CSR, also informed that the launch of Global Compact (GC) in Pakistan on 25th December 2005 by the EFP together with fifty companies was in response of the industry to work for a social face of the industry. It was informed that in South Asia, Pakistan alone boasts of the GC initiative led by the employers.
An important conclusion of the Conference was that employers and workers together are best placed in ensuring good corporate citizenship, better working and living conditions for workers, and community service.
CLAD in addition to presenting the results of all working groups in the concluding session also contributed in writing the brief report of the Conference.
Policy on Home Based Workers (HBWs)
The Homenet-Pakistan continued with organizing advocacy workshops on the “Implementation Process of National Policy for HBWs”. CLAD again acted as one of the resource persons and made a presentation on “Existing Labour Laws: Expected Impact of National Policy on HBWs”, in the Karachi workshop organized on 1 October 2009.
The CLAD presentation dealt with: i) labour market indicators reflecting current practices for HBWs, ii) HBWs policy stress and any relevance/relationship with the existing labour laws, and iii) areas of the HBWs policy that should focus for better outcomes. The presentation, however, informed that HBWs are currently neither covered under labor laws nor in the workers’ social security and welfare institutions.
Contribution to the 10th Five Year Plan (FYP)
CLAD participated as a member of the 10th FYP working groups (WGs) on: i) employment and income distribution, and ii) gender development. Whereas, for the former WG it contributed two write ups dealing with managing migration and labour market information system, for the latter as Chair of the sub-group prepared the draft report on women employment, poverty and livelihoods.
Participation in Pakistani Media
CLAD contributed newspaper articles in the business & finance review of the NEWS International on: i) implement labour inspection and labour protection policies, 26th October, ii) replace “income support” programme with “employment generation” plan, 23rd November and iii) employment generation through overseas migration, 7th December. It also participated in the current affairs rogrammes, mostly live, of the private TV channels: CNBC, SAMA & NEWS1.
3 Activities in the Pipe line
CLAD has to drop the plan to undertake its work on “demonstration of rights based generation of productive employment”. However, it is currently developing a concept paper on “alternate dispute resolution mechanism.
4. Visitors to CLAD
The CLAD was pleased to receive the following distinguished visitors:
1: Mr. Timothy Ryan, Regional Program Director-Asia/Europe Solidarity Center/Washington (at Murree Hills camp office).
2: The Canadian High Commission team led by the First Secretary Development Ms.Farah Chandni.
3: Mr. A.R. Abid, Additional Secretary (Retd)/Former, Sr Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Manpower, Government of Pakistan (GOP).
4: Mr. Zia Ahmed Awan, President, Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA).
5: Mr. Mohammad Javed, Chief of Employment Section (Retd), Planning Commission, GOP.
NEWSLETTER
October – December 2009
Volume 1
Issue 3
Centre for Labour Advocacy and Dialogue (CLAD)
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