EMPLOYERS’ INSIGHT ON

LABOR AND MANPOWER POLICY

Chairman : SITE ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRY

Member Managing Committee : EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION OF PAKISTAN

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On January 07, 1999 at the ceremony held in Islamabad to announce the Draft of the Labor & Manpower policy, the Secretary of the Labor Department, Government of Sindh, Mr Anwer Ali Khokhar, proposed a very pertinent suggestion. He floated an idea that the respective provincial labor departments should also organize a tripartite meeting at the province level to formulate a consensus on the various aspects of the draft. This proposal was accepted by the Federal Labor Minister and made an integral part of the deliberations. It took another four months before the Sindh Labor Department got around to organizing this event.

The success of any policy depends not just on the vision or the mission behind it, nor does it rest with the desire to compromise on the basics, nor does it rely on the need to use it as a guideline for progress. The achievement of any policy primarily depends on the attitude of those who are entrusted with the task of implementing it in the pragmatic way, in the correct letter and spirit, and in the best interest of the beneficiaries of that particular policy.

The Labor & Manpower Policy should be discussed and contemplated in that very manner. The policy as envisaged should be discussed keeping in view the following:

• Does this policy present the acceptable approach towards bringing about fundamental betterment in the existing scenario?
• Does this policy introduce desired amendments that are imperative to the improvement in the quality of lifestyle of those who are directly affected by its articles?
• Does this policy identify the parameters that are essential to the sustainability of industrial peace, to the enhancement in industrial productivity, and to the expansion in industrial output?

The Labor & Manpower Policy should be considered in conjunction with the ramifications of the national economic scenario in mind. The country is enveloped in a recessionary mode and this has brought sizable pressure on the workings of industry. The unemployment situation is taking alarming proportions and dangerous signals are emanating all over the country. These range from a shocking increase in suicides to the awesome growth in the number of sick industries. The gamut runs from appalling examples of bankruptcies to the sinister upsurge in the crime rate.

The Labor & Manpower Policy should be weighed with the emphasis of the global market in the fore. Pakistan is not an isolated country in the comity of nations. It is actively involved in the world market and is a signatory to the World Trade Organization agreement. In this way, there is significant pressure on the nation to open up the marketplace for foreign goods and there is tremendous demand to rationalize the import duty tariff under the WTO rules. It is more paramount to note that the country has to grant Most Favored Nation status to all WTO members, including India. The preferential trade agreements could be difficult to handle and it could mean the difference between survival and disaster if Pakistany industries are not able to effectively compete in the global environment due to heavy input cost.

The Labor & Manpower Policy should be pragmatically understood and recognized by the social partners, i.e., government, employers, and workers. The fundamental issue at hand is acceptance of the views and constraints of the other partners and then to bring about a decisive finale to the antiquated trend of distrust, discord, and disharmony. This can be achieved to a large extent by a commonality of productive goals, by a unified stand on removing all complications that have impeded industrial cohesion, and by a sacrificial sensitivity to the critical issues and definite obligations that are the mainstay of the mandates of the concerned partners.

Taking the above caution as the base, it is imperative that all the partners in the tripartite process should diagnose the Draft of the Labor & Manpower Policy in practical terms. The employers of Pakistan under the able leadership of Ashraf W. Tabani, President, Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, Member ILO Governing Board, President, International Organization of Employers, and a former Governor of Sindh, have been in the forefront in espousing the cause for a realistic Labor & Manpower Policy. The EFP hierarchy has been very outspoken in ensuring that the Policy also reflects and protects the employers’ perceptions. In order to guarantee that the Policy endorses the broad-based objectives of enterprise growth and workers’ well being, the idea is to have a Mission Statement that focuses on the following:

1. Elimination of all obstacles hampering rapid industrialization while solidifying harmonious industrial relations at the national as well as the organizational stage.
2. Conceptualization of employment possibilities and promotion of job opportunities for the increasing workforce in Pakistan and for expatriates desiring to return to the motherland.
3. Action-oriented schemes to bring about symmetry on a bilateral level in the designated interests and commitments of the social partners, viz., employers and workers.
4. Encouragement of the processes to promote and improve productivity and quality assurance programs of the enterprise as well as on a country-wide basis in order to profitably succeed in the highly competitive global village where there is and will be total liberalization of worldwide trade.
5. Laissez-faire attitude by the government in the process of collective bargaining resulting in advancement of bilateral relations between the union and management.
6. Privatization of all those workers welfare related institutions such as EOBI, SESSI, Workers’ Children Education Cess, Workers’ Welfare Fund, and Companies Profits (Workers Participation) Fund, for effective management, rational dispersal of benefits, extensive transparency and complete accountability.
7. Betterment in the quality of life for the working class by instituting a correlation between the degree of economic growth and dimension of welfare standards.
8. Consideration of the global and local economic scenarios to ensure that status quo is maintained on the financial obligations regarding worker benefits for enterprises so as to render a cost-effective environment to companies for sustained economic development, domestic and external investment, and industrial expansion. Indeed, the grave economic crisis confronting Pakistan demands a considerate agreement between all three social partners for wages and benefits freeze.

The employers are of the opinion that the country’s industrial base can survive on a longer term if the cobwebs gathered for decades all over the decision making process are ceremoniously removed and there is a positive flow of pragmatic rethinking within the portals of policy making edifices. This will ensure that the country’s entrepreneurs are concentrating on raising the national banner in international markets. This will ensure that the country’s entrepreneurs are freed from archaic policies, laws, and regulations that have been unmitigated impediments in bringing about economic prosperity. This will ensure that the country’s entrepreneurs are able to play a pivotal role in transforming Pakistan from a position of a less-developed nation to a status of a developed country . . . . . . . in the same manner where Pakistan is definitely a member of the exclusive club of nuclear nations. This is for all three social partners to believe in for here lies the recipe for economic salvation.