Labour Market Issues in Pakistan: Unemployment, Working Conditions, and Child Labour

Pakistan’s labour market is showing its inability to continue the past trend of labour absorption. Generation of additional work opportunities commensurate with labour supplies, increasing by over 3 percent annually, has emerged as the most formidable challenge of the nineties. The labour market is presently confronted with the twin menace of unemployment and underemployment. Although, the rate of unemployment has not as yet assumed serious proportions, the worrying aspect of this 5 percent unemployment is its concentration amongst the youth, and educated and trained. The under-utilisation of manpower, however, is manifested in the form of under-employment. There are more than a-tenth of the employed who find their work unable to keep them busy for 35 hours a week [FBS (1994)]. Further, those employed a-quarter of them find their employment income only meeting half of the subsistence requirements, while a similar proportion find their employment income barely managing to meet the subsistence requirements [NMC (1989)]. Lesser productive and low remunerative work opportunities is thus emerging as the major characteristic of the labour market in Pakistan. The situation in the labour market is serious on yet another account. The working conditions of those lucky found employed, by and large, are not satisfactory, rather they are deplorable. Long working hours and poor working conditions are the normal features of a significant number of work places. A number of them also carry occupational safety and health hazards.

IFIs’ Conditionalities, Poverty Reduction, and Employment

the great depression of 1930s, the Bretton Woods twins—international monetary fund (IMF) and the world bank; rather the world bank group1—have over the years emerged as important players of the international financial arena. They are the major component of international financial architecture in addressing global macro and financial stability. The Bank together with the regional multi-lateral development banks (MDBs), such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Asian and the Pacific region, is making its contribution in building necessary infrastructure needed to initiate and support the development process, the recent reduced emphasis on such projects notwithstanding.

IFIs’ Conditionalities, Poverty Reduction, and Employment

Rising from the debris of the World War-II and also the devastations caused by the great depression of 1930s, the Bretton Woods twins—international monetary fund (IMF) and the world bank; rather the world bank group1—have over the years emerged as important players of the international financial arena. They are the major component of international financial architecture in addressing global macro and financial stability. The Bank together with the regional multi-lateral development banks (MDBs), such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Asian and the Pacific region, is making its contribution in building necessary infrastructure needed to initiate and support the development process, the recent reduced emphasis on such projects notwithstanding

Making Globalisation Inclusive of People: A Trade Union Prespective

The greatest tragedy is to treat the unequal as equal”, says Aristotle. In a different perspective, similar concerns have found an echo centuries later—” the free play of market forces between unequal trading partners would only punish poorer commodity exporters at the same time as it brings advantages to the rich industrial countries”.1 New modalities of participation for developing countries in the trading system were suggested decades ago to attack the persistent trade imbalance and to create essential external conditions for accelerating the rate of economic growth. These included: (1) guaranteeing price stabilisation and improving market access for primary exports; (2) allowing greater policy space to develop local industries and reducing barriers to their exports; (3) establishing more appropriate terms of accession to the multilateral system, and (4) reducing the burden of debt-servicing. The developments as unfolded over the years, and more so since 1990s, are found as largely drifting away from these assertions of yester years. Market access to the agricultural products still has to materialise. Greater policy space to developing countries almost stands abandoned. Debt burden of the developing poor countries, the HIPC initiative notwithstanding, remains at volatile level.

Evolution of the Industrial Relations System in Pakistan

[Excerpt] The year, 2009, marks the 70th anniversary of the ILO Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, 1947 (No. 98), a fundamental convention widely ratified in South Asia. To commemorate the event and to better understand the role that collective bargaining has played as a mechanism to regulate relations between workers and employers, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Subregional Office for South Asia is publishing a series of studies on the current status and evolution of industrial relations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and three states in India – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. The studies, the first of this nature produced in the subregion in the last decade, aim at providing an insight into workers’ and employers’ organizations in the subregion, collective bargaining trends and coverage, dispute settlement and existing mechanisms to solve them, and recent tripartism and social dialogue practices. The studies also seek to assess the degree to which industrial relations have now been decentralized and examine the extent to which collective bargaining is providing an effective framework for governing collective labour–management relations at various levels. The studies pay particular attention to collective bargaining as a wage fixing mechanism and assess its relevance as part of the whole system of wage fixing. Access to data and statistics has been a challenge in all countries. Ministries of labour do not systematically register agreements, compile data, or analyse data on collective bargaining. With a few exceptions, the trends identified in the papers are based on the experience and perceptions of practitioners, the social partners, and officials from the labour administration

Developing Labour Market Information System for Informal Sector in Pakistan

The informal sector (IFS) is seen as having the potential to adequately respond to the growing unemployment problem in Pakistan. Easy access, and low skill and investment requirements of a variety of activities in this sector correspond well with the stock and annual additions to the labour force and the available financial resources. This sector is still absorbing a large proportion of the labour force in rural and urban areas. It is also contributing significantly towards developing the skill base of the labour force.1 (see Annex Tables I-III.) Bu~ the fact remains that its development is rather haphazard with the result that the potential which this sector offers remains poorly utilised. Firstly, adequate dis aggregated information on this l sector is stilllackillg. This often results in the undertaking of activities, but, without taking cognisance of market conditions and availability of adequate consumer demand. A number of -such activities, hence, face the risk of failure at the outset.. Secondly, there is a lack of disaggregated information on the stock of the labour force and annual additions to it, and also on employment patterns. This affects support activities, if any, as adequate feedback is not forthcoming on market con,ditions, new entrants into the labour market and the unemployed. Availability of disaggregated information is necessary for undertaking support and development activities for this sector