Vol. 79/No. 42      November 23, 2015

 

Pakistan factory collapses as
bosses ignore worker protests

 
 
Dozens of workers were killed and more than 100 injured when the plastic bag factory where they worked collapsed Nov. 4 in Lahore, Pakistan. Rajput Polymer bosses had ignored warnings and workers’ protests against cracked pillars and instability in the building’s structure. Local government agencies had turned a blind eye to violations of building regulations and labor laws.

“Three days before the collapse workers held a meeting inside the factory protesting cracks in the pillars. They were afraid for their safety,” Khalid Mahmood, director of the Labour Education Foundation in Lahore, told the Militant by phone Nov. 7. Cracks began to appear after an earthquake shook the area Oct. 26. “On the morning of Nov. 4 they again expressed their fears to the owner, but he dismissed them. In the afternoon the building collapsed.”

Workers also told owner Rana Ashraf that during a test run of new machines the whole building shook. They had protested construction of a new floor on top of the three-story factory. Installation of the machines and floor were both illegal.

“As of now they have recovered 50 dead bodies and some workers are still missing. Another six were found today,” Mahmood said. “I visited the site the morning after the collapse. The whole building had come down in a huge pile of rubble. I talked to many workers and families outside who were anxiously waiting to get some news.”

The plant, located in the Sundar Industrial Estate 28 miles south of Lahore, employed 500 workers. The majority were young men age 20 to 25 brought in from rural areas to work for low wages in hazardous conditions without contracts. Some were 14 to 16 years old.

Niaz, the company’s former general manager, had quit his job after arguing with Ashraf about building another floor on top of the roof, Dawn newspaper reported Nov. 6.

The Punjab Industrial Estate Development and Management Company and the Sundar Industrial Estate Management are the two government agencies responsible for managing the estate. A labor inspector used to visit the factory off and on, but “he would leave without any proper inspection,” Niaz told Dawn.

The bag plant workers got 200 ($1.90) rupees a day, working 12-hour shifts six days a week. That’s less than half Pakistan’s minimum wage of 13,000 rupees a month ($123). Nearly all the workers were hired by subcontractors without a contract. There was no union. Only 40 workers were registered with the government’s social security and old-age pension administrations, which may be an obstacle to getting compensation for those injured and families of those who were killed.

“In the whole Sundar Estate, with hundreds of factories, there is not a single union,” Mahmood said. “Factory owners are killing workers by saving money that should be used to make workplaces safe. A union in this big factory could have raised the workers’ voice and saved lives.”

The Labour Foundation took part in a public protest Nov. 6 in Lahore against unsafe conditions at Rajput and throughout the area.

In September four workers were killed and 16 injured when the cane-and-mud roof of a garment factory collapsed in Lahore. Bosses had stored a number of chemical-filled drums on the roof. In 2012 some 255 workers were killed when a fire broke out in a garment factory in Karachi in one of the deadliest industrial disasters in Pakistani history.
 
 
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