May 1, 2020
“This will be a completely different Labor Day as the laborers never faced situation like this. On the one hand, they are facing unemployment, and hunger, while on the other, a deadly disease like coronavirus. There will be no rallies or seminars and other public gatherings to mark the day for the first time in the country’s 72-year history,” Ali observed.
Not only India, but millions of Pakistani laborers also struggle amid COVID-19 lockdown. When there is no labour, no worker, no employee how will 2020 celebrate the World Labour Day i.e. 1st May?
The world faces a tremendous setback when a labour suffers. There is nothing to rejoice when worker is absent and is in pain.
According to labor unions, around 75% of the country’s total 65 million labor force is unregistered
Angered-charged hundreds of laborers, including women, assembled outside a factory in the eastern district of Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi to protest against their forced dismissal only a week before the International Labor Day (1st May).
These workers had gathered to collect their salaries but were verbally informed that the factory no longer required their services due to the financial losses incurred by constant lockdown enforced by the government to curb the raging coronavirus outbreak in the country.
A few kilometers away, another demonstration was witnessed outside a famous textile company, which also laid off hundreds of laborers giving the similar same reasons.
“It’s happening in all over Pakistan nowadays. Laborers, especially daily wagers, and contract employees are being laid off without any notice,” said Shams-ur-Rehman Swati, president of National Labor Federation (NLF), a conglomerate of different labor unions in Pakistan.
“Every day, hundreds of laborers are being laid off across the country since the government imposed the lockdown last month,” Swati told media.
The massive layoffs concur with PM Imran Khan’s call for not firing the employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government has recently announced incentives for the private companies who will not fire their employees during the period of lockdown. Nevertheless, according to the labor unions, thousands of laborers have been fired in the last two months in the country.
As a relief programme, the government has launched Ehsas (care) Emergency Cash Program to provide financial assistance of Pakistani Rs.12,000 ($75) each to some 12 million families affected by the coronavirus crisis.
Like any other country Pakistan has been under lockdown since last month and will continue until May 9. The country reports a total of 15,759 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 346 deaths so far.
A Different Labor Day
According to the Ministry of Planning, 12.3 million to 18.5 million Pakistanis are bound to lose their jobs, whereas the economy will acknowledge a massive loss of 2-2.5 trillion Pakistani rupees ($12.42-15.52 billion) due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
According to labor unions, the informal laborers account for 75% of the country’s total 65 million workforce are expected to be the hit the most. Around 40% of them are in agriculture sector. In other 60 per cent, labourers work in different services, manufacturing, and other sectors, according to the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and & Research (PILER), a non-governmental think tank, which deals with labor affairs.
“These informal laborers are not registered anywhere. They do not have any social security or legal cover. Millions of them will lose their jobs, I fear,” Karamat Ali, the secretary of Pakistan Labour Council and executive director of PILER, addressed media Agencies.
This year, The Labor Day is going to miss the traditional fanfare losing every zest to corona.
“This will be a completely different Labor Day as the laborers never faced situation like this. On the one hand, they are facing unemployment, and hunger, while on the other, a deadly disease like coronavirus. There will be no rallies, seminars, and other public gatherings to mark the day for the first time in the country’s 72-year history”, Ali observed
“We are not worried about that. We are worried about millions of our laborers, who have already been laid off or are going to lose their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis,” Ali maintained his statement .
The PILER plans to hold some online events to discuss ways of dealing with the massive layoffs on May 1.
Swati said: “Pakistani laborer today is not thinking about the May Day. He is more worried about the hunger looming on him, and his family due to unemployment.”
Swati observed that the ongoing wheat harvesting, the reopening of construction and some other low-risk industries, and Ehsas program by the government provided some relief to the laborers. The coronavirus crisis, he thought, had provided an opportunity to the government, and the private sector to overhaul the entire employment system in the country.