In order to improve the safety and health conditions in factories and workplaces, labour and trade union leaders asked that the International Accord be implemented at Pakistan on the tenth anniversary of the “martydom” of more than 260 innocent employees in the Ali Enterprises Garment Factory.
The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), Association of the Affectees of Baldia Factory Fire, and Home-based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) organised a rally and sit-in outside the factory, which was attended by the victims’ relatives, workers, political activists, and representatives of human rights organisations.
In remembrance of the dead employees, clay lamps were lighted and images of them were exhibited.
Government and fashion companies are urged to completely enforce the International Safety Accord on Bangladeshi design.
Deadly fields
Speaking at the event was NTUF General Secretary Nasir Mansoor, who noted that companies and workplaces in Pakistan still lacked health and safety precautions ten years after the catastrophe.
He claimed that this nation’s industries and workplaces were still essentially “death grounds” for helpless people.
He stated: “The local supplying factories of foreign brands are also implicated in depriving millions of employees belonging to the textiles and garments sector of their essential labour rights, such as minimum salaries, the right to organise trade unions, social security, pension, etc.”
In light of the ongoing debate over the GSP Plus status, he continued, this situation might have detrimental effects for the Pakistani economy.
The tariff discount in the European markets would be removed, endangering the livelihood of one million Pakistani employees, he said, and the GSP Plus would expire by the end of the new year if Pakistan’s anti-worker stance was not reversed.
Saeeda Khatoon, the chairman of the Association of the Affectees of the Baldia Factory Fire and a parent who lost her only son in the factory fire, claimed that the reason she and other parents like her were grieving for their innocent children was because of the avarice of capitalists.
She said that there is greed in the blood of capitalists be they local or international. “The number of workers dying in workplace mishaps is rising. The heirs of the Baldia factory fire victims are yet to be doled out justice. The German brand Kik till today has not apologised to the heirs of the victims,” she said.
