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The Committee notes the comments made by the Pakistan Workers’ Federation (PWF) in a communication dated 30 July 2010, reporting that agricultural workers have no right to freedom of association.

In its previous observations, the Committee observed that small agricultural holdings which do not run an establishment, or farmers working on their own or with their family, appeared to be excluded from the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO) 2002 and therefore from the provisions on freedom of association. The Committee noted that the 2008 Industrial Relations Act (IRA), which amended the 2002 IRO, was an interim law due to lapse on 30 April 2010. The Committee also noted that a tripartite conference had to be held to draft a new legislation in consultation with all stakeholders.

The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that the 2002 IRO did not expressly exclude agricultural undertakings from its application. It adds that there are no restrictions whatsoever on the workers employed in agriculture to form a trade union and that although no trade union of agricultural workers was registered, there were numerous agricultural workers’ associations in place to safeguard their interests. The Committee also notes that the Government enacted the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which transferred responsibility for labour issues from the federal to the provincial governments. The Committee further notes that on 18 June 2010, the High Court of Sindh (Karachi), referring to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, confirmed that the 2008 IRA stood repealed and concluded that the 1969 IRO was now once again in force. The Committee recalls in this respect that it had previously noted that while agriculture was not expressly excluded from the IRO 1969, it was not expressly included and that the definitions given in the IRO could be interpreted as excluding small agricultural workers like self-employed farmers, sharecroppers, tenants and smallholders, from its application. The Committee expresses the firm hope that new legislation will be adopted in the very near future in full consultation with the social partners concerned. The Committee further hopes that any adopted legislation will be in full conformity with the Convention. It requests the Government to provide a copy of the relevant legislative texts once they have been adopted.