Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11) - Pakistan (Ratification: 1923)

Legislative issues. The Committee recalls that, in its previous comments, it had noted: (i) that the Government had enacted the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, whereby the matters relating to industrial relations and trade unions were devolved to the provinces; (ii) the adoption of the Industrial Relations Act (IRA), 2012, which regulates industrial relations and registration of trade unions and federations of trade unions in the Islamabad Capital Territory and in the establishments covering more than one province (section 1(2) and (3) of the IRA); and (iii) the adoption in 2010 of the Balochistan IRA (BIRA), the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa IRA (KPIRA) and the Punjab IRA (PIRA). The Committee notes the adoption of the Sindh Industrial Relations Act, 2013 (SIRA), and the amendment of the BIRA in 2015. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the responsibility for the coordination of labour-related issues and the responsibility to ensure that provincial labour laws are drafted in accordance with international ratified Conventions, lie with the federal Government.

The Committee previously noted that, in its 2010 observations the Pakistan Worker’s Federation alleged that agricultural workers have no right to freedom of association, whereas the Government affirmed that there were a number of unions registered under the previous industrial relations legislation for workers engaged in the agricultural sector, and that all provincial industrial relations acts adopted in 2010 and the 2012 IRA were applicable to all establishments (with the same exceptions), including the agricultural sector. The Committee had requested the Government to confirm in its next report whether these acts apply to small agricultural holdings which do not run an establishment, as well as to farmers working on their own or with their family.

The Committee observes that the Government indicates that: (i) the agricultural sector continues to be the dominant employer by employing 42.27 per cent of the workforce; (ii) none of the industrial relations laws explicitly restrict the freedom of association for agricultural workers; (iii) the agricultural workers have the right to form associations in conformity with article 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan, with the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and with the Cooperative Societies Act, 1925; (iv) Sindh has become in 2013 the first Province to recognize women and men in the agriculture and fisheries sector as workers under law and has registered the first ever trade union for this sector, the Sindh Agriculture and Fishing Workers Union (SAFWU), which currently has 400 members of whom 180 are women; (v) the SIRA and the BIRA, as amended in 2015, have extended the right to form and join unions to the agriculture and fisheries workers; (vi) the industrial relations acts are applicable to all persons employed in an “establishment”, defined as a “society” or an “undertaking”; and (vii) therefore, any agricultural holding or farmers working on their own land with or without family may collectively form a society or undertaking enabling them to form associations or trade unions. The Committee notes with interest that section 1(3) of the SIRA and section 1(4) of the BIRA, as amended, now explicitly provide that the Act shall apply to “all persons employed in any establishment or industry, including fishing and agriculture”. The Committee trusts that the Government will ensure that it, as well as all the governments of the provinces, take the necessary measures to ensure that all workers engaged in agriculture, including in small agricultural holdings which do not run an establishment or farmers working on their own or with their family, enjoy the rights afforded by the Convention in law and in practice. It requests the Government to provide information on any progress achieved in this regard.