Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) has expressed that there is no longer any violation of labour laws in nation’s garment sector.
While addressing the media on 13 February 2019, Mubashar Naseer Butt, Chairman, PRGMEA, said that GSP Plus scheme was extended to Pakistan following the full compliance of 27 UN International Conventions on human and labour rights, governance and environment.
This also included 8 key ILO labour standards.
The GSP Plus scheme was extended after in-depth analysis and probe of state of labour market governance with reference to labour laws in Pakistan and also ILO conventions.
The PRGMEA chairman also added that PRGMEA and the provincial as well as federal governments have formulated many legislations to eliminate discepancies with the ratified ILO Conventions.
The Chairman strongly condemned the Human Rights Watch Report and said that since Pakistan is a combination of formal and informal sector, the segregation of formal and informal has not been done in the report and therefore the findings are not significant.
He also added that the report strangely does not include views of garment entrepreneurs, senior/middle factory management of the garment factories, government and labour department.
The Chairman said that the PRGMEA member companies were regularly audited by international compliance bodies like SEDEX, WRAP, SA-8000, BCSI and REACH among others and there are certainly no instances of labour law violation.
