Protection at workplaces: PA adopts Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Bill

The Sindh Assembly on Friday adopted the "Sindh Occupational Safety and Health Bill, 2017" into law to ensure protection to labourers at workplaces against risk injury and promote a safe and healthy working environment. The legislation will help promote a sound working culture to protect the workers against physical, physiological and psychological risks at workplaces across the province.
"A similar law exists at the federal level whereas the 18th Constitutional amendment makes it compulsory for provinces to make legislation, in this regard," Sindh Senior Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Nisar Khuhro told the house. He said that the legislation is aimed at ensuring sound environment for workers.
In line with the law, the employer will have general duties to ensure all possible practicable measures for safety and health at workplaces. The employers are bound to speedily remove threats to the workers. Besides they will also have to take a regular assessment of dangers at the workplaces.
For setting up a workplace including shops, factory, shopping mall, marriage hall etc., the owners will need to take permission from the Sindh government's concerned authority. However, the authority will have to ensure the sound working environment before giving approval for founding the workplaces.
Without the authority's approval, no one can establish a start up or reconstruct the existing workplaces. The authority will have to take all the ancillary negative impacts into consideration whether a start up poses any disturbance to vicinities or localities. With the law, the Sindh government will set up a Special Safety and Health Council which Secretary Labour Department will head.
The council will have members from the government departments, employers and experts. The rules' violators will face jail term and fines. The law determines different punishments for violations, accordingly, ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 250,000. The assigned inspectors will have the powers to shut operations at a workplace that failed to ensure sound environment.
Sindh Transport Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that lack of safety arrangements caused the Baldia factory incident in Karachi. To him, the said incident was a tragedy similar to one that Americans saw on 9/11. He said it is now imperative to carry out legislation to ensure safety at the workplaces. Other legislators also wanted the government to make it compulsory for big shopping malls to have their own fire-fighting systems with fire tenders in place.
The transport minister told the assembly that the government will begin plying new buses in Karachi by December. He said that the government reviewed a 100 buses scheme of 2013-14 and now planned to introduce 1000 buses for the province. Under the Benazir Bhutto Transport Project, he said, government will run 600 buses in Karachi.
Nasir Shah also announced the government would soon place a ban on playing music inside the public transport. He also slammed the federal government over exorbitant toll tax at Hyderabad Superhighway, saying that it is in fact a superhighway and not the motorway. He said the federal government is hurting people through high road taxation.