KARACHI: A large number of labourers working at the ship-breaking
yard in Gadani have called for payment of compensation to the families of
workers who lost their lives in the Nov 1 accident.
Eleven workers died and scores were injured
when an explosion occurred at an oil tanker that was brought to the yard for
dismantling. The death toll rose to 26 on Sunday after the death of three
injured workers.
Work at the ship-breaking yard remained
suspended for the fourth day running on Sunday.
The protesters, mostly from Gadani, Hub and
Karachi’s Baldia Town, marched from Regal Chowk to the press club in the
afternoon. Relatives of those who were killed in the 2012 Baldia Town factory
fire also participated in the protest.
The protest was organised by the National
Trade Union Federation (NTUF). Addressing the protesters, NTUF general
secretary Nasir Mansoor called for doing away with the contract (Thekedari)
system at the ship-breaking yard. “If we want safe working conditions, certain
issues need to be immediately addressed,” he added.
He said compensation for the workers should
be given priority. “We suggest Rs3 million as compensation for every family
which lost a breadwinner in the accident and Rs500,000 for the injured.”
He urged the authorities to ensure safe
working conditions at the ship-breaking yard.
Mr Mansoor said India had a far bigger
ship-breaking industry and used to have tragedies bigger than in Pakistan. But,
he added, the country had managed to bring down the number of incidents by
introducing a code and imposing rules and regulations.
As majority of the workers at the
ship-breaking yard and those present at the protest were Pakhtuns, the
president of the NTUF’s Sindh chapter, Gul Rahman, spoke in Pushto.
Mr Rahman asked workers to forge unity for
getting their rights. He said around 12,000 people were working at the yard in
Gadani without the cover of the Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI),
insurance or any social security.
He said since 1968, 800 workers had lost
their lives in accidents at the site.
He criticised the government for “showing a
lacklustre response” to the incident. The chief minister of Balochistan visited
Gadani three days after the explosion and that too only for seven minutes, the
NTUF leader recalled. “Such apathy can be changed only through agitation by
workers.”
Bashir Ahmed Mahmoodani, who heads the Gadani
Ship Breaking Workers Union, thanked the Edhi Foundation for despatching
volunteers to Gadani soon after the explosion. After the explosion, fire
tenders had backed off and no senior official was present at the place, he
regretted.
The speakers called for introduction of a
“ship breaking code”, similar to one being followed in India.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan has said it will compile a report about the accident. According to an
HRCP fact-finding committee which visited Gadani after the incident, there is
no record of the exact number of people working at the yard at the time of
explosion. The entry sheets, according to some officials present at the site,
is not available as the office had been “locked for outsiders” soon after the
incident.
Abdul Wahid Shahwani adds from Khuzdar: A
large number of protesters carrying bodies of two labourers who died in Gadani
blocked the Karachi-Quetta highway for several hours on Sunday.
The two labourers, identified as Sanaullah
and Alam Khan, succumbed to their burn injuries in Karachi’s Civil Hospital on
Sunday.
Hundreds of vehicles remained stuck on the
highway for several hours.
However, the protesters agreed to call off
their protest after negotiations with the administration.
Meanwhile, police have arrested four people,
including the contractor and the manager of the ship in which the explosion
occurred. But the owner has not been taken into custody because he is in a
hospital these days.
Source: pak
tribune. 07 November 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment