Rally demands regular jobs, safety for Gadani ship-breaking workers

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Marking the third anniversary of the Aces oil tanker fire, ship-breaking workers took out a rally in Gadani to demand workplace safety and a regularisation policy on Friday.On November 1, 2016, a scrapped oil tanker, Aces, had caught fire during its dismantling, which killed 29 workers onboard and wounded 55 others. The fire continued to burn for at least two days.Speaking at the demonstration, the president of the Ship-breaking Workers Union, Bashir Mehmoodani, said that the government of Balochistan had failed to provide legal protection to the ship-breaking workers.“As a result, they are compelled to work in worst conditions which can turn even a minor accident into a deadly one,” he said, lamenting that given the government’s performance the health and safety of workers had become a distant dream.He said that to rectify the situation, it was necessary to regularise the ship-breaking sector. He added a draft bill which was made in consultation with all the stakeholders in the occupation should be tabled in the assembly for further proceedings.The president of the National Trade Union Federation, Rafiq Baloch, said that despite receiving complaints about hazards and malpractices in Gadani, neither the employers nor the government had done anything to improve the conditions.He said that the labour department, social security institutions, EOBI, environmental agencies, local police, administrations, owners of ships and contractors were responsible for the problems being caused as they kept refusing the constitutional and legal rights of the workers.Ship-breaking worker Muhammad Saleem said that the workers were still being denied their basic rights like appointment letters, social security and pension. He said the employers and the authorities were also discouraging them from making unions to campaign for their rights.He said that apparently because of the government’s heavy taxes and patronisation of smuggling, the work in Gadani had come to a standstill because the employers had shut down their business owing to incurring losses.The participants of the rally demanded that legislation to regularise the ship-breaking workers should be done immediately, all health and safety measures implemented there, the workers’ rights respected, and the contract labour system abolished.The asked the federal government to ratify the Hong Kong’s and other international conventions on ship-breaking and provide hospital, ambulances, anti-fire facilities, a canteen and safe drinking water to the workers.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/32aGOnc
The News International - Karachi