No lesson has been learnt
from the 2016 oil tanker tragedy in Gadani as the labourers are forced to work
in the same conditions as of the fateful day, said labour leaders here on
Wednesday.
They said that on November 1
last year, 29 workers were killed and several others were wounded after a
decommissioned oil tanker, Aces, caught fire during its dismantling. The fire
rapidly engulfed the whole ship and intensified apparently due to the presence
of flammable gases and liquids on it. It
took at least three days for firefighters to put out the blaze.
The National Trade Union
Federation (NTUF) and its affiliate Ship Breaking Workers Union (SBWU) took out
a rally in Gadani on Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the deadliest
disaster in the ship breaking industry and protested against the unchanged
state of affairs at the yards.
Addressing the participants
of the rally, NTUF President Rafiq Baloch said that a ship breaking worker
lived in a state of modern slavery as their employers and government
authorities did nothing to improve their conditions – despite making tall
claims when the tragedy hit.
Not declaring a holiday in
remembrance of the fallen workers was a show of their imperialist mindset, he
said and added that not only the workers are still deprived of health and
safety facilities, their lives are also in grave danger.
He said that since the Aces’
fire, nine more people have been killed in similar incidents in Gadani and very
recently a worker was wounded as a gas cylinder went off at a yard. “The
responsibility for these deaths lies on the shoulders of the employers,
management and contractor, as well as on the authorities like labor department,
police, customs, environment protection
agency, district administration, land authorities and government because they
have been criminally tightlipped, blind and deaf on the prevalent wrongdoings
in Gadani,” he added.
A large number of workers
were present at the rally.
Speaking to them, SBWU
President Bashir Mehmoodani said that the workers were being pushed into the
valley of death by their employers just for the sake of financial gains. He
added that the workers were still deprived of appointment letters,
registrations with social security and pension funds, besides not having any
safety measures implemented at their workplaces.
He said that the oil tanker
fire victims were not paid any compensation by the federal and Balochistan
governments, nor was the announced sum of Rs500,000 by the Workers Welfare
Board was given to them. He added that the government and employers didn’t
fulfil their promises and did not act according to the agreement reached
through a tripartite mechanism.
He further stated that a
local resident had donated a piece of land earlier this year for the
establishment of a hospital on it, however, no progress could be made on it.
The rally demanded that a
legislation should be done on the ship breaking industry by taking the real
representative union of workers onboard, international conventions be
ratified, health and safety measures be
implemented and working and living conditions be improved. Besides that, the
also demanded access to safe drinking water,
hygienic canteens, clean toilets,
improvement in workers’ transport system and ratification of Hong Kong
Convention for safe recycling in Pakistan.
Source:
Pakistan
Today. 01 November 2017
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