HRCP supports Punjab’s lady health workers on strike

Press release

HRCP supports Punjab‘s lady health workers on strike

Lahore, 30 March 2018: Six years on, the Punjab government has failed to implement the notification it issued in 2012, regularizing the services of 50,000 lady health workers (LHWs) in the province. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) urges the Punjab government to rectify this immediately. LHWs are critical to Pakistan’s public health delivery system—many of them working in remote and often difficult conditions to provide basic healthcare, family planning and vaccination services in underserved areas.

Hundreds of LHWs have collected at Charing Cross in Lahore to demand better working conditions. Given that the right to work involves ‘just and favorable conditions of work’ and ‘protection against unemployment’, it is imperative that the Punjab government implement the 2012 notification, establish a regular service structure and settle all salary arrears due to LHWs in the province without penalizing them for having been on strike. The women HRCP has spoken to, allege they have not been paid for five months and been threatened with termination for having demanded their salary arrears. Many say they are expected to work around the clock without leave and that, unless they meet certain service delivery targets, they are dismissed or their salaries cut. They also allege that health department officials have sent them ‘false’ letters assuring them their demands will be met—but with no further action following these promises.

While creating a competitive work environment is important, this should not be at the cost of a decent work environment, which, under the International Labour Organization’s definition, includes a ‘fair income’, ‘security in the workplace’ and ‘better prospects for personal development’. LHWs are poorly paid, those in Punjab earning about Rs15,000, according to the women on strike, and there are few provisions for their security when working in remote areas. Many LHWs are also sorely disillusioned with the role of the World Health Organization, which, they feel, has encouraged the government to focus exclusively on meeting service delivery targets without accounting for LHWs’ poor working conditions and lack of training. The Punjab government must address the LHWs’ grievances as fairly and as quickly as possible.

 

Dr. Mehdi Hasan

Chairperson

 

 

Category: English