Safeguarding of employees’ rights and implementation of labour laws is now a deep rooted phenomenon in the developed countries and increasingly in many developing countries as well. It’s inconceivable for a western employee now to think about any cruel labour practices of the past. But for employees and labourers in many developing countries, it is actually an everyday fact.

I’ll focus my attention on the labour practices and employees persecution in Pakistan here. We do have ample labour laws and employees protection acts but often times they are not implemented in the true sense of the word. Many employers, including the global giants, usually come down like a ton of bricks when it comes to labour laws and fair trade practices. Take the case of Unilever for example. The company has dismissed scores of workers as they were demanding their basic right to join a trade union. As discussed before, this FMCG has some really dubious practices when it comes to the protection of employees rights.

Same is the case with majority of other Pakistani companies. The workers are hardly covered under medical insurance, there are no standard wages and also ‘timely’ delivery of wages, job security and equal opportunity working standards, among other things. There is another major issue intertwined with the agonies of Pakistani labourers, child labour. That’s a huge topic in itself and requires a separate post but some Pakistani companies, excluding the multinational ones, doesn’t pay any heed to international laws in this regard.

The inherent culture of corruption and nepotism and the ignorant attitude of the government in implementing the labour laws has given an open playing field for these employers. Add to this the conniving and ‘cartelisation of interests’ by these employers has created huge bottlenecks. In recent past, all newspapers of Pakistan refused to print an advert of a labour union as it was against the interests of one of the major Pakistani conglomerates. Keep in mind that these laborers were eager to pay for the advertisement and were not asking for charity. These labour organizations are left with no other choice but sending letters to those in power but of course get no positive response.

So will Pakistani laborers will ever be able to achieve the rights bestowed on them? In theory they are already empowered but in practice it will take a lot of time to change the mindsets. Maybe a massive campaign is needed to advance their cause.

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