In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a steady erosion of labour rights, coupled with increasing suppression of trade union activities, sparking widespread concern among human rights organisations, international watchdogs, and labour activists.
While the country’s economic challenges—rising inflation, a depreciating currency, and dependency on IMF bailouts—have exacerbated the conditions for workers, the weakening of institutional safeguards meant to protect labour has intensified worker vulnerabilities across industries.
At the heart of this crisis lies the consistent marginalisation of trade unions. Once instrumental in negotiating wages, ensuring workplace safety, and advocating for social security, trade unions in Pakistan now operate in an environment marked by surveillance, intimidation, and legal hurdles.
According to reports by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Human Rights Watch, union leaders have faced harassment, termination, and in some cases, criminal charges aimed at stifling dissent and discouraging worker mobilisation.
The garment and textile industry—Pakistan’s largest export sector—offers a sobering illustration.
Despite being a multibillion-dollar industry that employs millions, many textile workers face exploitative conditions, including 12-hour shifts without overtime pay, unsafe work environments, and a lack of access to social protection.
The 2022 fire at a textile unit in Karachi, which claimed several lives, starkly exposed the absence of adequate safety regulations and the price workers often pay in silence.
Calls for accountability were swiftly buried under bureaucratic delays and corporate denial.
Yet, when workers attempt to organise and demand rights, they are met with force.
The Sindh Industrial Relations Act, for instance, while nominally providing a legal framework for unionisation, is routinely circumvented through tactics such as terminating employees involved in union activities or registering employer-friendly “yellow unions” to undermine genuine labour representation.
These measures create an atmosphere where fear, not solidarity, defines the working-class experience.
This suppression is not confined to the private sector. Public sector workers, too, face growing challenges.
Teachers, healthcare professionals, and sanitation workers have repeatedly protested for the regularisation of contracts, timely payments, and pension rights.
Many of these protests have been met with police crackdowns, including baton charges and mass arrests.
In 2023, the All Pakistan Clerk Association (APCA) launched a nationwide strike over stalled pay revisions and contractual appointments. While the government engaged in negotiations after days of disruption, little structural change followed.
Part of the issue is political indifference. While successive governments have paid lip service to worker welfare, labour reforms have rarely figured prominently in national agendas.
In contrast, neoliberal policies pushed under international financial assistance programmes have prioritised deregulation, privatisation, and fiscal austerity—often at the expense of labour protections.
The result is a labour market skewed heavily in favour of employers, with precarious employment, informal work arrangements, and wage stagnation becoming the norm.
Women workers have suffered doubly under this climate. Not only are they more likely to be employed informally—with no contracts, benefits, or legal recourse—but they also face gender-specific exploitation, including wage discrimination and workplace harassment.
Female agricultural labourers in Sindh and Balochistan, for instance, are routinely underpaid, with no access to maternity leave or healthcare benefits.
Trade unions that could potentially voice these grievances are often absent in these sectors due to legislative and social barriers.
The COVID-19 pandemic further deepened these inequities.
As businesses shut down, millions were laid off without compensation.
Daily wage workers, especially in the informal sector, which constitutes nearly 72% of Pakistan’s labour force, were left without income, food, or state support.
The government’s Ehsaas programme, though helpful in providing some financial assistance, was not a substitute for long-term structural protection.
In the absence of robust unions, workers had no platform to seek redress or negotiate survival terms collectively.
Adding to these challenges is the selective implementation of existing labour laws.
Pakistan is a signatory to several ILO conventions, including those concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining.
However, enforcement remains spotty at best. Labour inspection mechanisms are underfunded and, in many cases, non-functional.
In provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, labour departments lack both the personnel and authority to monitor violations, let alone penalise offenders.
Corruption and political interference further compromise these already fragile systems.
The international community has taken note. The European Union, under its GSP+ scheme, which grants Pakistan tariff-free access to European markets, has periodically reviewed Pakistan’s human rights and labour compliance.
In its latest assessment, the EU raised serious concerns about the suppression of trade unions and urged concrete reforms.
Continued violations risk the country’s trade privileges, potentially impacting export-driven sectors and overall economic stability. Yet, thus far, such warnings have not catalysed substantive reform.
Grassroots resistance, however, is on the rise. In industrial cities like Faisalabad, Lahore, and Karachi, workers have begun to organise informal networks to press for their demands.
In early 2024, gig workers for food delivery platforms held spontaneous protests in Lahore demanding fair pay, insurance, and transparency in algorithmic management.
While largely unrecognised by existing labour law, these new forms of labour activism signal a potential reawakening of collective consciousness among the working class, despite the hostile environment.
At the policy level, there remains a glaring disconnect between economic goals and labour realities.
Pakistan’s push to attract foreign investment and integrate into global supply chains is undermined by its poor labour rights record.
Major international brands sourcing from Pakistan face increasing scrutiny from their consumers and watchdogs regarding working conditions in supplier factories.
Without reforming labour laws and empowering unions, Pakistan risks not only moral and social failure but economic penalties as well.
The government’s recent decision to form a high-level committee to review labour rights compliance is a step, albeit a small one, in the right direction. But without genuine political will, transparency, and participation from independent labour organisations, such efforts risk becoming cosmetic.
In a country of over 240 million people, where tens of millions rely on daily wages to survive, the question of labour rights is not just a policy issue—it is a moral imperative.
The calls for change are growing louder, not only from unions and workers but from citizens who see the erosion of labour protections as part of a broader decline in democratic accountability. In Pakistan’s factories, farms, and service centres, workers are demanding dignity, fairness, and a voice. Whether or not the state listens will determine the future of the republic’s social fabric.
