Labour day is observed the world over in remembrance of a historical labour struggle by US industrial workers. It was back in 1886 when workers in Chicago revolted against inhumane work conditions and a score of them were killed in police firing.
Since then, the day is observed every year to remember the struggle of those workers who rendered their lives while seeking just treatment at workplaces. As a result of this historical mobilisation of workers the right to have the workday regulated to no more than eight hours was accepted. In 1919, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was established under the League of Nations and later became the first specialised agency of the United Nations. The very first standard it set was the eight-hour workday or 40-hour workweek.
A lot has changed in the world since then. However, there is a little improvement in working conditions in Pakistan. Informality of labour relations, long working hours, low wages, poor health and safety arrangements, absence of social protection and lack of unionisation characterise labour in the country.
In essence, labour issues are imbalances of political power.
The Global Slavery Index ranks Pakistan among the top six countries in the world where labour bondage is rampant and over three million people are compelled to work under slavery-like conditions.
Though labour conditions in many countries are not ideal and there is still a need for urgent measures to comply with international labour standards, the question of workers’ self-agency has become a central point in the labour discourse.
The issue of labour rights is actually an issue of political power imbalance—capital at one end and a large number of vulnerable workforces at the other. Given powerful interests’ greed for profit maximisation, compliance with labour rights has slipped off the list of priorities of governments and employers. Governments across the world have bowed before corporate power. So it is in Pakistan too, where the declining capacity of state enforcement mechanisms have left millions of workers vulnerable to exploitation.