LAHORE: Ismail Suttar, President Employers Federation of Pakistan has said that employers are committed to promote socially responsible labour practices through social dialogue and eliminate child labour through sustainable efforts.
Ismail Suttar in his presidential address at the tripartite plus meeting said that global competitiveness reminds enterprises to adopt socially responsible labour practices. He demanded them to take concrete measures to sustain the efforts already made in the soccer ball industry and other sectors to eliminate forced child labour.
Suttar added that the most important challenge was to replicate these efforts in the lower tiers of the supply chain. Zaigham Abbas, Director Labour, Lahore Division, Shahid from labour department, Ahmad Haseeb, Director EOBI, Ms. Tehmina Asad, Labour Economist, Fasihul Karim Siddiqi, advisor EFP and Syed Nazar Ali, director EFP board also addressed the event.
The participants actively took part in the dialogue and made presentations reflecting the perspective of employers and workers and governments on these important issues. Major (R) Abid Iftikhar from Ali Murtaza Associates, Arshad Mahmood from Labour Department, Ms. Fatima Farooq of PWF, and Major Khawaja Javed Akhtar .
Earlier, Zahoor Awan, General Secretary PWF in his remarks emphasized that compliance with national and international standards was a national necessity for the growth of industry and business in Pakistan. The joint efforts made by the employers and workers to eliminate child labour from the soccer ball industry is the result of intensive efforts of more than a decade.
It was necessary now to take measures to sustain them and to strive hard to ensure that the lower tiers of the supply chain are also declared labour free. Khawaja Javed Akhtar, MD, Forward Gear Sialkot in his keynote speech gave a bird’s eye view of the efforts made by the soccer ball industry in Sialkot and particularly in elimination of child labour and forced labour and steps taken to sustain these efforts.
He said that the initiatives taken by the soccer ball industry can be replicated in the lower tiers of the supply chain.
