Large protest held against violations of labour laws in SITE.

KARACHI -- National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) joined hands with other labour organisations on Thursday to organise a protest in Sindh Industrial Trade Estate (SITE) area to raise voice against violations of labour laws, lawlessness and harassment of workers claiming that the government and its related departments and agencies were fully supporting industrialists, who were exploiting workers.

The protest led by NTUF Sindh chapter president comrade Gul Rehman was attended by a large number of workers who staged a sit-in at the Habib Bank traffic intersection and protested for several hours.

All at the protest were of the opinion that SITE, the oldest industrial estate of Pakistan, has become an epicentre of labour law violations.

Nasir Mansoor, NTUF's central general secretary, said that SITE was the oldest industrial area of Pakistan where Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had inaugurated the first industrial unit at Valika Textile Mills on September 26, 1947. 'The more than 4,500 big and small industrial units in SITE have been playing a vital role in the economic development of Pakistan, where more than 600,000 workers are directly or indirectly part of the production process. But sadly, this important industrial zone has virtually become a large jail for workers,' he said.

'With the exception of a few industrial units where there are labour unions present, the whole industrial area has become a den of lawlessness, harassment and suppression of workers. The rich owners of industrial units in SITE have virtually purchased the corrupt bureaucracy of the Sindh labour department, social security, EOBI and other related departments and the hapless workers are left with no avenue to get their grievances redressed,' he claimed.

Habibuddin Junaidi, president of the Peoples Labour Bureau, said that like other industrial areas, more than 95 per cent of workers in SITE were deprived of written appointment letters.

'The rich owners of industrial units have virtually purchased the corrupt bureaucracy'

'This is why hundreds of thousands of labourers have no legal identification as workers. A majority of industrial units in SITE have a contractual labour system where labour contractors do not even give them the minimum wage of Rs17,500,' he said, adding that in a majority of factories labourers had to work for more than eight hours a day and they did not get any overtime for the extra work.

Karamat Ali of National Labour Council said that besides SITE...