In the text box below identify the main laws in Pakistan relating to health and safety and what the main requirements are for as employee
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Answer:
The total population of Pakistan is about 135.6 million. The ratio between male and female is equal. The majority of the population are young people. Approximately 90.05 million were of working age.
According to government statistics the labour force in Pakistan was estimated at 39.4 million of which the industrial labour force constituted 6,005,487, agriculture represented 17,518,204 and service 10,586,309.
According to another government source 44 percent of labour belongs to the agriculture sector and 56 percent form the service and industrial sectors of which 20 percent is formal sector and 36 percent informal.
The number of registered unions was 7,349 with a total membership 293,530 made up of 288,327 men and 5,203 women (Labour Department statistics). These data show that less than three percent of workers are organised.
The above data is not reliable but is what is available.
No data about occupational health and safety (OHS) are available in Pakistan because the majority of accidents are not reported to the Labour Department. Diseases and accidents in the work place are an appalling tragedy. The incidence of occupational diseases and injuries is very high in Pakistan because thousands of workers are routinely exposed to hazardous chemicals.
It is well known that healthy workers are most productive. The introduction of hazardous technologies in industry and agriculture have resulted in high accident rates, occupational diseases, and unhealthy working environments. Most workers are illiterate and do not know what protective measures should be adopted for their jobs. This results in an increasing toll of work related accidents and diseases.
Pakistan has poor occupational safety and health legislation and infrastructure to promote it.
Large numbers of illiterate workers are employed informally in unregulated sectors like construction, agriculture, mining, especially in small-size enterprises.
Women and children are especially vulnerable as they usually work informally, with no access to basic occupational health and safety protection.
Government data in 1999 show 1,934 industrial accidents occurred in factories registered under the Factories Act 1934. [But ALU believes this figure to be far short of the actual total]
Accidents per 1,000 workers
Fatal 0.21
Serious 0.91
Minor 5.32
Total 6.44
Four major working sectors in Pakistan are identified as agriculture, formal sector, informal sector and service sector.
The overall accident rate is similar to Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). An average 70 workers die per year due to electric shocks. In year 2000, 82 WAPDA linemen and workers died due to decreasing standards in safety. 72 WAPDA workers died from electrocution in 1999 up on the 65 who were killed in 1998.
In the transport sector in Punjab province alone in 1999, 6,553 people died in road accidents.
Working conditions are similar in other hazardous industries like textile, tanning, chemicals, paper, sugar, electrical, and electronic. The workers suffer more in those industries and face diseases like lung cancer, skin and eye allergies, deafness, headaches and also the rate of accidents is higher. In addition the tanneries waste liquid contaminates underground water making it danger for workers’ and residents’ health.
Construction
The largely informal construction sector provides employment to large numbers of workers who are specially vulnerable to occupational health and safety risk as most of them are illiterate. These workers are not even provided with the protection that is available to industrial workers, because most labour laws do not apply to this sector, and the rate of accidents, diseases and injuries is consequently higher.
Brick kiln workers are scattered across all four provinces of Pakistan. Their working conditions are worse than most others as it is either joint family labour or, as in some areas, bonded labour.
According to a Labour Department source, in Punjab province there were 500 registered brick kilns against 1,900 unregistered. The total number of workers was estimated at more than 100,000. Brick dust causes lung infection, eye allergies, backache, depression, and skin problems.
Explanation:
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