FAISALABAD: The Country Programme Manager BWP Caroline Bates has said that the Better Work Programme (BWP) will help improve Pakistan’s compliance and exhibit its commitment to improve labour welfare.
Enlightening the core aspects of Better Work Programme during a consultative session at Pakistan Textile Exporters Association on Wednesday, she said that BWP is successfully running by ILO and IFC in eight countries benefiting 2.5 million workforce as 1700 factories and 150 international brands are linked with this programme.
This programme includes a comprehensive framework on improving industrial relations through training and compliance with International Labour Standards including occupational safety and health, nature of employment, discrimination and other forms of labour practices as well as strengthening employers’ and workers’ organizations in textile industry, she said. Emphasizing the importance of ratifying and implementing International Labour Standards for the business community, she elaborated the situation of working conditions in terms of employment, child labour, informality of work and wages.
She highlighted the recent interventions carried out by federal and provincial governments to improve working conditions in the country and elaborated various ILO Conventions which are ratified. She identified a number of avenues where the textile industries in Pakistan in collaboration with ILO, can bring improvements in the work practices thus enabling more exports to Europe.
Earlier, PTEA Vice-Chairman Ameer Ahmad welcomed the launch of BWP in Pakistan and said that textile industry has seen some setbacks in its international exports due to lack of compliance with International Labour Standards which includes the withdrawal of Walt Disney Corporation from Pakistan as it dropped Pakistan from its list of “Permitted Sourcing Countries” and stopped sourcing on account of low WGI ranking. This elimination led a sizable business loss and put adverse implication on textile exports as an estimated direct loss of export orders was 150 to 200 million dollars per year; whereas job loss was approximately over 25,000 persons. He extended full support for success of BWP in Pakistan.
PTEA’s Patron-in-Chief Khurram Mukhtar was of the view that foreign trade has a lot of attached responsibilities as the international buyers are increasingly getting sensitive about ethical sourcing and international compliances. BWP would improve working conditions in textile industry and make the sector more competitive by enabling collaboration between Government, global brands, factory owners and workers.
Later, former PTEA chairman Azhar Majeed Sheikh presented insignia to Caroline Bates. A large number of textile exporters including Muhammad Ahmad, Arif Mahmood Qureshi and Gauhar Mustafa Ch were present in the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022