Events planned to mark 7th anniversary of Baldia factory fire

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The Sindh Labour Department in collaboration with trade unions and labour support organisations will observe Occupational Safety and Health Day on Wednesday to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the Baldia factory fire incident.As many as 259 workers had died in the worst factory fire caused by an arson attack at Ali Enterprises, a garments manufacturing unit in Baldia Town, on September 11, 2012.A meeting for finalising programmes to commemorate the deadly incident’s anniversary was held at the PILER centre on Thursday.Abdul Rasheed Solangi, secretary of labour, Government of Sindh; Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Farhat Parveen, executive director of NOW Communities, and others attended the meeting.The meeting’s participants decided that a seminar on occupational safety and health care in Sindh would be held at the Arts Council Karachi on September 11. Minister for Labour and Manpower Saeed Ghani will be the chief guest while labour department officials, experts in occupational safety and health and trade union leaders will also speak.Relatives of victims of the garments factory fire would also take part in the event. Solangi said in the meeting that the Sindh government had decided in 2017 to observe 11th September as Occupational Safety and Health Day every year to mark the anniversary of the Baldia fire incident.He said Sindh was the first province that had passed a record number of labour laws after the adoption of the 18th Amendment in the constitution and for the first time a separate law called Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Act 2017 had been passed by the assembly.Just after the Baldia fire incident, he said, a Joint Action Plan for Promoting Workplace Safety and Health in Sindh was prepared in collaboration with the Labour Department, the Employers Federation of Pakistan, the Pakistan Workers Federation and the ILO.Under the Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Act 2017, the labour secretary stated the government had recently established the Occupational Safety and Health Council to protect the rights and monitor working conditions of people in the labour force. The 22- member council is also comprises representatives from employers, labour organisations and occupational safety and health experts.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2LvYrHV
The News International - Karachi