KARACHI (ILO News) : The ILO under its BMZ funded project Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains organized a four day workshop on “Organizing and Collective Bargaining for workers and Trade Unions” at Karachi from 15-18 August 2018.  A similar workshop on the subject was successfully held in March 2018 in Faisalabad. This workshop was intended to build the capacity of additional workers representative in order to increase the outreach of the training. The workshop was attended by 60 workers representatives including 13 women participants, mainly the trade union leaders from Baluchistan, ICT, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh and who had an opportunity to enhance their knowledge on effective tools for collective bargaining. 

The programme facilitated an improved understanding among trade union officials on the lacunas in the legislation and administrative structures that limit the outreach and strength of trade unions and also improved their technical capacities of trade unions’ leadership in the area of collective bargaining.

Mr Zahoor Awan, General Secretary Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF) highlighted the importance of Social Dialogue in the process of collective bargaining. He also emphasised on adopting innovative approaches to social dialogue and the opportunity that devolution provides for unifying trade union movement.

The workshop provided participants the space to share and discuss challenges in the process of collective bargaining and recommend solutions. The workshop also highlighted how the ILO’s supervisory mechanisms on Freedom of Association promotes an “enabling environment” for trade unions through improved strategies for organizing, targeting in particular the workers in private sector and in the informal economy.

Mr Karuppiah Somasundram, Assistant Secretary Education, and Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Malaysia explained the importance of research in collective bargaining. In particular, the discussion facilitated by Mr.  Somasundram explored the use of financial data to analyse the capacity of employers organization’s so that workers representatives can make reasonable and informed demands from their employers when bargaining collectively.

The workshop featured role plays on negotiation which helped participants in demonstrating their learning and acquired skills.