Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 96) - Pakistan (Ratification: 1952)

Progressive abolition of fee-charging employment agencies conducted with a view to profit. The Committee has noted for many years in relation to the abolition of fee-charging employment agencies, as required by Part II of the Convention, the Government’s indication that draft rules have been framed to regulate the operation of fee-charging employment agencies. The Committee notes that the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies (Regulation) Act, 1976, came into force on 1 January 2003, as stated in the Government’s report received in October 2012. The Government also indicates that licences for overseas employment promoters are renewed on a yearly basis and that their conduct is strictly supervised (Article 5(2)(b) and (d) of the Convention). The Committee recalls the observations made by the Pakistan Workers’ Federation (PWF) indicating that recruiting agencies have been exploiting prospective migrant workers. The Government states that the situation with respect to fee-charging agencies is not as grave as portrayed by the PWF. It also refers to Emigration Rule 15 and 15(A) which allows overseas employment operators to charge certain fees, including actual expenses incurred on air travel, medical expenses, work permit levies, visa fees and other documentation (Article 5(2)(c)). The Government further reports that the competent authorities are being requested to conduct a survey and report on the number of fee-charging agencies that have been abolished, penalized or found working in their respective areas of jurisdiction. The Committee invites the Government to provide in its next report detailed information on the following issues already raised in its previous comments:

• -the measures taken to progressively abolish fee-charging employment agencies (Part II of the Convention);
• -the numbers of public employment offices and the geographical areas they serve (Article 3(1) and (2)); and
• -the consultations of employers’ and workers’ organizations on the supervision of all fee-charging employment agencies (Article 4(1)(a), (2) and (3)).

Revision of Convention No. 96. Possibility of ratifying Convention No. 181. The Government indicates in its report received in October 2012 that consultation with the employers’ and workers’ organizations will be held on the basis of the results of the abovementioned survey on fee-charging employment agencies and that the social partners will consider whether there is a need to ratify the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181). In its previous comments on the application of the Convention, the Committee highlighted the role that Convention No. 181, and the Private Employment Agencies Recommendation, 1997 (No. 188), play in the licensing and supervision of placement services for migrant workers and the role that Convention No. 181 attributes to private employment agencies for the functioning of the labour market (see General Survey concerning employment instruments, 2010, paragraph 730). The Committee recalls the importance for member States to build or strive to build institutions necessary to ensure the realization of full employment (see General Survey, 2010, paragraph 786). The Committee hopes that the Government and the social partners will contemplate adhering to the obligations of Convention No. 181, the ratification of which involves the immediate denunciation of the Convention. It invites the Government to continue to report on steps taken, in consultation with the social partners, to ratify Convention No. 181.