The Hindu : National : Wooing investments a challenge to Pakistan: regional seminar

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Friday, Jul 20, 2007
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Wooing investments a challenge to Pakistan: regional seminar

Special Correspondent

Improve labour market, say trade union representatives

Pakistan should provide better paid and stabler jobs
Sri Lanka should address rural, youth unemployment

NEW DELHI: Pakistan will have to significantly improve its labour market outcomes by providing more jobs, better paid and stabler. Another challenge is to attract more foreign investments through consistent and investor-friendly policies without violating the rights of the working class.

These were some of the conclusions drawn at an Asian Regional Seminar for Trade Unions on “Labour Market Reforms: The Trade Union Response,” which began here on Wednesday. Trade union representatives from 16 countries are attending the three-day seminar organised by the International Labour Organisation.

The best option to the Pakistan Government was to expand industry through incentives and by protecting workers’ rights. The percentage of organised workers was very small, with just 6.3 per cent of the non-agricultural labour force and 2.2 per cent in unions enjoying collective bargaining status.

Major chunks of workers were excluded from the provisions of labour laws, including those in the agricultural sector and large enterprises operating in export processing zones.

The speakers said flexibility in the Pakistan labour market was important because other countries in the region were competitively making their markets attractive to foreign investors. Trade unions in Pakistan were weak and did not influence policies, while the labour movement remained splintered along ethnic, sectarian, linguistic and regional lines.

Trade union federations were often centered on the personality of a leader.

In Sri Lanka, the challenge in reforms was to balance the needs of industry and employers with labour interests. Imbalance that affected both sides of the divide needed to be addressed simultaneously. Bold and visionary leadership was required to cut through the tangle of labour legislation, and reforms must be driven not by political expediency but by a consultative and participatory process involving all stakeholders.

Considering Sri Lanka’s turbulent experience with youth uprisings, there was also need to address rural and youth unemployment, identified as being a major contributory factor to unrest. Other issues such as improving the rights and conditions of labour in the informal sector without over-regulating and stifling the growth of small and medium enterprises should also be dealt with on a long-term basis.

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