After Sindh, K-P passes home-based workers bill

LAHORE: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assembly followed the footsteps of Sindh on Wednesday when it passed the ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Based Workers (Welfare and Protection) Act, 2021’.

The bill was moved by K-P’s Labour and Culture Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai. In Sindh, the bill was passed in 2018.

In Punjab, two bills have been moved for the protection of home-based workers. One has been moved by the provincial labour and human resource department and the other has been moved by PTI MPA Uzma Kardar as a private member bill.

After receiving the bills, Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi referred it to the Standing Committee on Labour for vetting. It is expected that the bill will be passed soon by the assembly.

“The bill for home-based workers in Punjab will hopefully be brought to the floor of the house soon and will be passed. There shouldn’t be any delay in it,” PTI MPA Uzma Kardar told Bol News.

On the other hand, the Balochistan cabinet has green-lighted a similar bill for their province as well. The bill will now be presented in the assembly for final approval.

“Pakistan is probably the only country in the world that has legislations for home-based workers in all four provinces on the cards,” Ume Laila Azhar, Executive Director HomeNet Pakistan told Bol News. She also called the passage of the bill in K-P a ‘milestone’ for labour laws in the province.

“Through their approval, the home-based workers will share the same code of conduct and rights that other workers of the country follow,” she said while talking about the bill.

In Pakistan right now, female participation in the workforce stands at 22 per cent and it is expected that the numbers will rise after the approval of this bill.

The bill allows the provincial governments to keep the data of workers and in return, the workers will have access to social protection and legal protection.

For Azhar the malpractices took place due to the lacking legislation for home-based workers around the country.

“Now that we have a law, such malpractices will be eradicated from society,” she said.