KARACHI: Demanding their right to health and
safety, the Gadani ship-breaking yard workers held a demonstration outside the
Karachi Press Club on Sunday and called upon the federal and Balochistan
governments to address their ‘long-pending’ issues.
A large number of workers arrived in Karachi
from Gadani, Balochistan to lodge their protest against the authorities’ apathy
towards the problems they have been facing for the last three to four decades.
The event was organised by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF).
Addressing the demonstration, NTUF president
Rafiq Baloch said that the lawmakers should enact legislation to regularise
workers at the Gadani ship breaking yard, which is one of the largest in the
world, and to provide health and safety facilities.
He said that they had put forward their
demands a number of times in the past but the rulers of the country did not pay
any heed. “It seems that the government doesn’t even [consider] the labourers
humans,” he said. “They haven’t even been given their basic rights to fair wage
and social security.”
NTUF deputy general secretary Nasir Mansoor
said that the federal government should ratify the Hong Kong International
Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009, and
make laws in light of it. “There is a dire need of some special laws for the
ship breaking workers because the conditions in which they have been forced to
work [are] extremely dangerous and inhumane,” said Mansoor.
He said that there were around 20,000 workers
associated with this industry but hardly any one of them was registered with
the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution and was given social security and
pension.
“Some of the subjects fell within the domain
of [the] federal government while some were with the provincial government,” he
said, adding that neither tier of the government was actually taking a notice
of the situation.
Ship-breaking Mazdoor Union president Bashir
Mehmoodani said that accidents involving casualties are a routine at Gadani.
Sharing a latest accident, he said that a worker, Wali Muhammad, died on
October 21 after falling from a ship that was being dismantled.
“The matter is still pending as no action has
been taken against the yard owners for not providing the worker with safety
equipment,” he said, adding that the ship breaking work is as dangerous as
mining and the workers were asked to maintain their safety on their own.
The protesters demanded that the government
should address their issues and make legislation to protect them. They added
that a worker who spends all his life in this field does not even get pension
after retirement.
Talking about why the event was held in
Karachi, the organisers said that it is because the provincial capital, Quetta,
is far away from Gadani than Karachi. Therefore, they said, they decided to
bring their plight into light here.
Source:
The
Express Tribune. 29 October 2016
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