GovernanceGovernanceGovernanceGovernanceGovernance

There are three ministries responsible for four modes of transport – ministry of railways (rail), ministry of communications (road and sea) and the ministry of defence (airways). “Each ministry formulates its plans independently and they have negligible coordination with each other…”11 The need for a single ministry of transport was identified in the early decades. The Planning Commission had proposed in 1977 to bring all modes of transport under a single ministry.12 At present, the ministry of communications is responsible at the federal level for road transportation through the National Transport Research Centre (research and policy guidelines), the National Highway and Motorway Police (implementation of rules) and the National Highway Authority (infrastructure).13

In Pakistan, development of road transport services – inter-, intra-city and cross-boundary freight and passenger traffic – has followed distinct phases. In 1947, three large private transport companies, subject to controls by the state authorities, were operating in the port city of Karachi, the hub of transport activity. By 1951, five more private companies (with 30-50 vehicle fleets) came into being.14 These private companies were rendered unprofitable and disbanded in 1956 due to disabling fiscal and regulatory policies. In the late 1950s, transport control and ownership in major cities was largely taken over by public authorities under the East and West Pakistan Road Transport Corporations with municipal undertakings. In 1969, the Motor Vehicle Rules was enacted. Micro and small entrepreneurs were allowed to enter the market with single/multi-vehicle fleet purchased on loans from informal moneylenders or formal financial institutions.

In 1971, regional and provincial transport authorities were set up to devise rules and enforce implementation and provincial transport corporations in Sindh, Punjab and NWFP were established to undertake operation of passenger bus services in competition with private operations. Within a decade all these three corporations were running in deficit due to “…lack of entrepreneurship…” and other constraints.15 The decades of 1980s and 1990s witnessed increased activity of largely reregulated, fragmented, informal private sector entangled in a myriad of issues besetting all the stakeholders – transport workers, operators/owners, users and regulators. Unlike other stakeholders, the impact of re-regulation and privatisation on road transport workers has been negative as the workers’ terms and conditions of employment are the main target of cost-cutting initiatives.

Till today, regulatory and governance mechanisms of road transportation have not been brought under a unified, central authority. Vehicles are registered by provincial excise and taxation departments, authority for licence issuance and renewal lies with provincial home departments, while grant/renewal of route permits and vehicle fitness certificates are issued by provincial transport departments that work under provincial transport authorities. The provincial transport authorities and regional transport authorities are responsible for administration and enforcement of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965 and the Motor Vehicles Rules, 196916 and their functions include planning and allocation of routes. These Authorities “…assert dayto-day control over inter- and intra-city passenger transport services which are dominated by the private sector”.17

Regulatory FrameworkRegulatory FrameworkRegulatory FrameworkRegulatory FrameworkRegulatory Framework

Transport PolicyTransport PolicyTransport PolicyTransport PolicyTransport Policy

Road Transport Labour LegislationRoad Transport Labour LegislationRoad Transport Labour LegislationRoad Transport Labour LegislationRoad Transport Labour Legislation

The liberalisation of the road transport market in the 1970s resulted in fragmentation of the sector’s structure, with the majority of worker-cum-operators entering the sector to secure a livelihood with little investment, followed by the emergence of individual/joint ownership of small fleet inter-city passenger and freight services. The big investors stayed off the market as they did not envisage public provision paying lucrative dividends. In the late 1990s, large private sector companies were inducted through fiscal incentives. At present, the sector has several systems of operation impacting differently on labour relations and labour rights.

Many skilled workers are self-employed as owner-cum-drivers (operators) and unskilled as cleaners/conductors of the public service vehicle (bus/wagon/mini-bus/loader suzuki/taxi/ motor rickshaw/school van) purchased through loans from traditional moneylenders. The intra-city passenger and freight vehicle ownership falls under this category. At times, a single vehicle is owned jointly by two-three persons (i e, driver, conductor) who pool in money to purchase the vehicle from the owner/permit holder at a high interest rate. A single vehicle service cannot be registered as an establishment or company. The vehicle is not insured as insurance companies charge high premium for individually owned public transport vehicles due to a rising incidence of arson and looting. The workers under this arrangement (see Box 2) are the most vulnerable, have no social security and live under the constant risk of losing their livelihood (in case of injuries in accident or damage/loss of vehicle).

Inter-city passenger and freight services are dominated by small (bus/transport goods) registered companies, either under proprietorship or joint ownership. The services comprise 5-20 vehicle fleet, and are run by hired employees (drivers, helpers, conductors) paid on per-trip basis without any base salary. Often, ownerdriver of single vehicle operates under the umbrella of these small companies through paying monthly commission and accessing the bus stand/parking facility and the company’s clout in dealing with regulators (law enforcing agencies, legal structures). The owners of these companies evade laws and the workers are deprived of decent work and social security benefits. A few big companies (i e, Daewoo Bus Service Company) – with a fleet of more than 100 vehicles – that have emerged since late 1990s comply with labour legislation and maintain standards for labour rights to quite an extent.

In intra-city transport services (mini-buses, wagons, taxis, rickshaws), particularly in big urban centres, the informal employment contract is based on the residual income principle.25 The worker retains whatever amount is left after paying a contractually fixed amount to the vehicle owner and the gasoline charges. The worker, thus, has to maximise returns in order to maximise his income, which results in long working hours on the roads and disregard of occupational health and safety measures.

Transport workers – drivers, conductors, cleaners, helpers – in Pakistan are predominantly male, with the exception of a couple of woman taxi drivers found in big cities. Women, due to social barriers and cultural constraints, refrain from entering the sector though since late 1990s women are being inducted by a few medium-to-large sized passenger transport companies as hostesses or as office workers. The review of data of the select number of transport workers26 indicates that the majority belongs to the age group 20 to 45 (for the work is physically-mentally demanding), is literate and semi-skilled or skilled. These characteristics are corroborated through an earlier study27 where the bulk of workers were found to be in the 20-40 year age-group, literate and skilled. The schooling reported by an older cohort (age group 35-50) is limited to 5 to 8 years, while the young workers (age

Box 1: ILO Road Transport ConventionBox 1: ILO Road Transport ConventionBox 1: ILO Road Transport ConventionBox 1: ILO Road Transport ConventionBox 1: ILO Road Transport Convention

The ILO Hours of Work and Rest Periods (Road Transport) Convention, 1979 (No 153), concerns hours of work and rest periods in road transport. It is the only ILO Convention which deals exclusively with conditions of work in road transport. The man clauses of the Convention state that:

As of August 2005, only eight ILO member states (Equador, Iraq, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela) had ratified the instrument.

Box 2: Life on the RoadBox 2: Life on the RoadBox 2: Life on the RoadBox 2: Life on the RoadBox 2: Life on the Road

Mustachioed, grim-faced, 44-year-old Najibullah Khan is on the road for the last 29 years. He works as a driver on long-distance route – Karachi to Islamabad. “I get Rs 1,500 per trip. A trip takes 26-27 hours. I make about 6 trips a month and that adds up to Rs 9,000 per month”. Born in a village in Musakhel, Mianwali, Najib dropped out of school after class 6 and was pushed into the labour market as a child. Initially he worked as bus cleaner and helper. When he got his licence at 18, he took to driving. In 1973 he came to live in Karachi where he shares a rented accommodation with another person. Najib’s family members (parents, wife and 5 children) work as sharecroppers in the village. These days he is paying a monthly instalment of Rs 1,000 to the moneylender for a loan of Rs 10,000 he took to help his family buy agricultural inputs.

“There is one more driver along with me in the bus, and we take turns after 4-5 hours of driving, taking 2-3 hours rest in between. After each trip I am off the bus for 24 hours and busy with maintenance of the vehicles and carry out related errands. I get little time to spend with my family whom I visit fortnightly”. For Najib, there are no holidays, no medical or other facilities and no social security.

In addition to poor physical infrastructure of the work environment, road transport workers have to deal with threatening

Box 3: Bilateral Commercial EnterpriseBox 3: Bilateral Commercial EnterpriseBox 3: Bilateral Commercial EnterpriseBox 3: Bilateral Commercial EnterpriseBox 3: Bilateral Commercial Enterprise

Initially established as Daewoo Pakistan Bus Services in 1997, and now a partnership between Chaudhry Brothers, Lahore, and Daewoo Korea with 49/51 shareholdings, the Sammi Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Services has a fleet of 150 buses plying on intercity routes in 15 cities of the provinces of Punjab and NWFP, operated by 2,500-3,000 employed staff. “The drivers are paid between Rs 10,000 and 18,000 per month. The company has 400 females working as hostesses, getting between Rs 7,500 and Rs 12,000 per month. Guards are paid Rs 4,500”, informs Naveed Dar, ticketing manager, Daewoo Bus Stand, Lahore. The employees are insured, entitled to leave and other facilities and are paid bonuses. Drivers are educated on traffic rules and regulations but made to pay themselves if they violate traffic rules. “In case of accident, the company pays full compensation and medical services”. It cannot be said, however, that workers do not have grievances and labour rights are ensured. Some of the workers once tried to form a union but the company fired them all. Since then, no attempt has been made to unionise the workers.

Box 4: Vulnerable and DispossessedBox 4: Vulnerable and DispossessedBox 4: Vulnerable and DispossessedBox 4: Vulnerable and DispossessedBox 4: Vulnerable and Dispossessed

Ghulam Sabir, 26-year old, clad in crumpled shalwar qameez, is reclining on a seat in a bus parked at the General Bus Stand on Bund Road, Lahore. Unassuming, frail and shy, he doesn’t look like he wields a gun hidden in his shalwar: Sabir works as a gun man on a long route inter-city bus run by a small company. He gets Rs 200 per trip and makes 15 trips a months pooling a monthly income of Rs 3,000 to a household of 15 members with two more members (his father and a brother) earning more or less the same amount.

Sabir is a new entrant to transport sector labour force. Till a few months back he was working, for the last 12 years, as tailor/embroiderer in his family micro enterprise. He started as a child worker at the age of 14 after he dropped out from school, studying up to class 7. “We had five sewing machines. A few months back the shop was gutted with fire caused by an unplugged iron. Whatever little assets we had, went up in smoke. In the villages there is no concept of insurance. In any case, most small businesses like ours cannot afford insurance. Kalalwala, where I live, is a small village, with no opportunities for employment. My family doesn’t own any land. So I left home and boarded the bus for the city, got down at the adda where I found this job.” He doubts that with this paltry amount he could ever save money to buy sewing machines and go back to the work he was comfortable with.

Unsure of what the future holds for him, Sabir, who looks tired and lethargic, remains on board for 24 hours, followed by 24 hours rest. While on the bus, he takes small naps during the day, cramped in a seat, when the vehicle is passing through safe areas. At night he must keep vigil. “For being a gunman, you don’t need any training. There are so many weapons in villages and cities that every man knows how to use a gun. Luckily, I have not come across any bandits on my vehicle. So far, so good”, he smiles wearily.

and corrupt regulatory infrastructure and the rising service provision cost (see Box 5). Harassment and extortion of ‘bhatta’ by traffic police and check posts officials are a norm and transport workers have to co-opt them, else devise mechanisms for confrontation. Low literacy levels, inadequate skill formation in the absence of proper training and refresher courses on traffic rules and regulations, and lack of awareness on labour rights and legislation, hinder empowerment and render road transport workers vulnerable.

Two major health risks, linked with transport workers in the country, are drug addiction and HIV/AIDS. Cargo and passenger transportation on long-distance inter-city and trans-border routes require long working hours and night-time driving hence increased probability of pushing workers to take drugs to fight off sleep and exhaustion. Also, trans-border drug trafficking between Pakistan and Afghanistan make harmful drugs easily accessible to workers. Unofficial estimates and media reports indicate high incidence of drug addiction among road transport workers.

Though Pakistan has low prevalence of Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the number of AIDS and HIV positive cases is increasing. According to UNICEF estimates of 2005, there are 70,000 to 80,000 (or 0.1 per cent) HIV positive people in the country with a 7 to 1 male/female ratio. The two categories of people most infected with HIV/AIDS are cited to be sex workers and transport workers operating on long-distance routes. As the nature of work keeps the workers away from their conjugal families for longer period, the workers, mostly men, are more prone to avail services of sex workers, hence at higher risk.

Road transport workers are faced with a number of safety issues, topped by driver fatigue, which is considered the main cause of accidents in the transport industry around the world. In Pakistan, a total of 9,377 traffic accidents were reported in 2002-03. Of them, 4,045 accidents were fatal, resulting in the loss of 4,813 human lives,30 including those of drivers and other transport workers. The incidence of serious injuries in Pakistan is reported at 41.2 per 1,000 persons per year, traffic accidents being the most common cause. According to a study,31 36 per cent of these injuries are transport related. In the PILER study

Box 5: Informal Fiscal/Governance ArrangementsBox 5: Informal Fiscal/Governance ArrangementsBox 5: Informal Fiscal/Governance ArrangementsBox 5: Informal Fiscal/Governance ArrangementsBox 5: Informal Fiscal/Governance Arrangements

Umar Hyat, in his early 40s, is owner-driver of a bus plying on the Karachi-Hyderabad route. He left his home town in Mian Chunno, in 1978 after he finished class 10 and secured work as a bus conductor. He took to driving in 1980. In the early 1990s he was able to raise some money through the help of his father and bought a second-hand vehicle. Umar pays Rs 1,500 per month commission to an established bus service company to operate his vehicle under its name. “They let me use their office facilities and the bus ’addas’ for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers. They also help me deal with police and other officials. But I have to bear all the costs that are incurred in such cases. It is just the company’s clout that helps me settle things quickly”.

“After paying Rs. 800-900 ‘bhatta’ to various check posts, monthly commission to the company, the vehicle’s maintenance cost and the other driver and conductor’s salaries and food, I am left with around Rs 12,000 per month”, he states. “I can’t take day’s off work. If I do, from where will I, and my family of six members, get our next meal? The only advantage of owning the vehicle is that nobody can kick me out of work. As long as the bus is there, and I am hale and hearty, I will keep driving and earning”.

on urban transport workers, 40 per cent of the respondents reported work-related injury incidences.32

The high figure of traffic accidents is related to fatigue and lack of sleep and rest, excessive hours of work, poor road design, and ignorance and violation of traffic rules and regulations. Stress caused by harassment of law-enforcing agencies (traffic/highway police, check posts and custom officials) for extortion of money is a common condition. Aggressive behaviour (verbal or physical assault) and humiliation hurled by passengers is frequent. In addition, the workers run the risk of vandalism, robbery, dacoity and vehicle-jacking, where the consequences (physical injury or damage/loss of the vehicle) have to be borne by the workers.

Box 6: Rickshaw Drivers’ Association: The BeginningBox 6: Rickshaw Drivers’ Association: The BeginningBox 6: Rickshaw Drivers’ Association: The BeginningBox 6: Rickshaw Drivers’ Association: The BeginningBox 6: Rickshaw Drivers’ Association: The Beginning

Rickshaw driver, Mohammad Yusuf Khan, 29, works for 12 hours at a stretch, is one of the three earners in a family of eight. He studied up to class 8 and after a few years’ of odd jobs, he took to rickshaw driving in 1996. “After paying commission to the owner, I was left with a meagre amount of Rs 1,500 – 2,000 per month. So in 2003 I took a loan of Rs 50,000 from the moneylender. I pay him a monthly instalment of Rs 3,000 out of Rs 6,000 that I earn in a month, which is inadequate but at least now I own the rickshaw and once the loan is paid off, my takehome earnings will increase”. Yusuf has no social security coverage and once when he suffered an accident, he paid for hospitalisation through support from his family members and partly from a small loan from a friend. He finds the attitude of traffic police harsh and humiliating, though he pays them a total of Rs 500 per month as ‘bhatta’.

The only silver lining for Yusuf is his participation in a recent initiative

–Muslim Youth Transport Federation – a yet-to-be-registered organisation formed by young and educated rickshaw drivers in Muslimpura, a small town near Baghbanpura, Lahore. “At present we have 64 members. We are trying to expand our membership. There must be at least 200 members to have real impact, both in terms of fund raising, and in dealing with police harassment. Still, we support each other in times of crises through pooling in whatever individual resources we do have”.

Box 7: The Union and the Law Enforcing PersonnelBox 7: The Union and the Law Enforcing PersonnelBox 7: The Union and the Law Enforcing PersonnelBox 7: The Union and the Law Enforcing PersonnelBox 7: The Union and the Law Enforcing Personnel

The Mini-Taxi Workers’ Union, Hyderabad, was formed by taxi drivers in 1977. The union has 600 members, is registered with the labour department and has a collective bargaining agent status. In Hyderabad city there are around 650 mini-taxis. “We banded together to address the issues we are facing and foremost is lack of social security. There are contingencies – traffic accidents, damage or loss of vehicle, prolonged illness, police cases – that can threaten our livelihood. We do not have either personal or vehicle insurance. Most of us earn barely enough to survive – around Rs 3,000 if you don’t own the taxi, or around Rs 6,000 if you own the taxi. On average, each of us has 6 to 8 dependents. The other serious issue is of harassment by traffic police and other law enforcing agencies that we face daily. It was to counter these problems that about 100 taxi drivers got together and registered the union. Gradually our membership increased.

“We started from a membership fee of 50 paise (Rs 0.50) per day. We now collect Rs 3 per day from the members. The union has a rented office and three paid office bearers who provide round the clock services to taxi drivers in need of guidance on documentation and other work-related legal procedures. After taking care of the salaries and office expenses, we are left with a fund of Rs 20,000 to 30,000. Through this fund we help our members tide over contingencies. The unions provide from 50 per cent to 100 per cent of the expenses incurred during a contingency. The amount given to the member varies from case to case”.

“The union handles approximately 1,000 requests annually for financial help. Hyderabad is a congested city with narrow lanes and chaotic traffic. Minor accidents are very common which nonetheless cause damage to the vehicle or lead to involvement of law enforcing agencies and court procedures”.

Box 8: Pakistan Transport Workers’ FederationBox 8: Pakistan Transport Workers’ FederationBox 8: Pakistan Transport Workers’ FederationBox 8: Pakistan Transport Workers’ FederationBox 8: Pakistan Transport Workers’ Federation

The Federation, with a membership of around 8,000 transport workers from the provinces of Punjab and NWFP, is an alliance of five unions – All Pakistan Goods Transport Workers’ Union, Mini Goods Transport Workers’ Union, Pakistan Civil Transport Workers’ Union, Wagon Drivers’ Union and the Rickshaw Drivers’ Union. Founded in 1981, the Federation was the outcome of an initiative undertaken by the office bearers of All Pakistan Goods Transport Workers’ Union, which has the largest membership, to bring transport workers on a single platform. The objectives were to provide protection to transport workers, push for improvement in working conditions and enable access to rights, particularly of social security.

“We began mobilisation from the city of Lahore, then went to Okara and later expanded our membership and the network to other cities of the two provinces”, says Mohammad Rafiq Qureshi, president of the Federation. “Our immediate concern was to tackle excesses suffered at the hands of regulatory bodies, particularly the collection of bhatta by various personnel. It took us several years to tackle the issue. Not only have the lawenforcing personnel stopped harassing our members, they seek the Federation’s partnership in their programmes”, says Mohammad Rafiq Qureshi, president of the Federation. The Federation membership card has the credibility and clout that let law-enforcing personnel refrain from committing excesses. One of the tactics used by the Federation is tit-fortat, or brute confrontation: “If a police/excise personnel ask for bhatta/ bribe, our member calls us for help. One of the office bearers reach the spot and ask the official to give us the bhatta instead, threatening to report the corrupt practice immediately to his superior.” The Federation’s office bearer states that in such a way they have, at times, extorted twice as much amount from the law-enforcing personnel themselves.

At the moment the Federation has 40 support centres in 40 districts. Manned by a team of two and headed by an office bearer designated as district chairman, each centre provides legal guidance and support to transport workers who get embroiled in regulatory problems, such as traffic/highway police harassment, traffic violation or other such cases. “A driver, or a transport worker, who gets into trouble on the way, does not know the location of relevant offices in an unfamiliar town. He calls the district chairman who then guides him through the labyrinthine bureaucratic procedures.” The members are helped financially through the Federation fund in legal cases but those who commit traffic violations have to pay through their own pockets. The Federation has on its agenda education of its members on traffic rules and regulations and it regularly arranges, in partnership with motorway police and traffic management authorities, for training and refresher courses in a premises accessed by the Federation for this purpose.

The other important element in the Federation’s collective care arrangements is the financial support that the Federation extends to its members in times of crises, such as illness, injury, death. The Federation established its fund in 1990 and maintains an amount of Rs 5,00,000 to Rs 7,00,000 in its kitty to take care of administrative and managerial cost and support its members during contingencies. The Federation initiated life-long stipend scheme to survivor’s family in 1995 when a widow of a truck driver wrote a letter asking the Federation for help. The Federation asked her to submit relevant documents testifying that her husband was a driver. She has, since then, been receiving Rs 1,000 per month. After three years, the woman again approached for support for her daughter’s wedding. The Federation sent her Rs 5,000. In 1999, the Federation extended a monthly stipend to a driver who was incapacitated after an accident and Rs 1,000 per month to the family of a murdered driver. These workers were not the members of the Federation.

The Federation’s office bearers have held several meetings with state officials on the issue of social security and are campaigning for inclusion of transport sector workers in state-sponsored social security schemes.

defend their interests”.33 The unions/federations with larger membership have recognition and credibility and their office bearers are invited by relevant state departments for dialogue and consultation.

The majority of these area-based organisations have low membership, ranging from 50 to under 1,000. Only a few have 1,000 to 5,000 members. Those with large membership are effective as the strength in number not only empowers the organisation but makes collective care arrangement in the form of a welfare fund viable. The genesis of transport workers’ organisations/unions shows that these sprang up spontaneously

Review of the work of select transport workers organisations indicates that membership-based unions/federations have evolved certain collective care arrangements in response to threatening and insecure work conditions. The priority issue for transport workers has been securing protection against abuse of power by regulatory personnel. As the prevalent attitude and practice of lawenforcing agencies adversely impinge upon transport workers’ already precarious livelihood, the workers have come up with collective, informal arrangements that serve as bulwark against misuse of power and keep the damage at bay.

An important tool – as used by stronger transport unions – is their officially acknowledged identity as union members. The registered unions issue membership cards, on the pattern of national identity cards, which contains the worker’s picture, his name, full name of the union/organisation, its registration number and the secretariat address. This card comes handy when the member is approached (in order to harass) by the law-enforcing agencies. “As soon as our member shows this card, the police refrain from excesses”.35 The recognition of this particular unions’ federation has been made possible due to its strength in number and the political clout/pressure exerted by its key office bearers whose activism (i e, networking with administrative bodies) over 26-long years have borne fruit. The other strategy, as reported by Pakistan Transport Workers’ Federation, is confrontation and tit-for-tat or “rule of the jungle”, that is, harassment and committing excesses on the opponents in retaliation (see Box 8).

Next, the membership-based unions give priority to minimum security in times of crisis in the life of the worker to prevent him and his household’s sliding into poverty. Mostly it is done to address work-related contingencies that arise due to traffic accidents resulting in injuries, prolonged hospitalisation or death of the worker. Transport workers organisations, whether narrow or broad-based, help their members in such crises. This is done either through voluntary pooling in money from personal resources and extending it to the affected worker’s family (as aid or loan without interest), or utilising the union welfare fund.

The union welfare fund is maintained through mandatory financial contributions of the members. The amount of these welfare funds varies from Rs 30,000 (Mini-Taxi Workers’ Union, see Box 7) to Rs 7,00,000 (Pakistan Transport Workers’ Federation, see Box 8). The union membership fee is kept affordable

Box 9: All Sindh Private Bus Transport Workers’ UnionBox 9: All Sindh Private Bus Transport Workers’ UnionBox 9: All Sindh Private Bus Transport Workers’ UnionBox 9: All Sindh Private Bus Transport Workers’ UnionBox 9: All Sindh Private Bus Transport Workers’ Union

All Sindh Private Bus Transport Workers’ Union represents workers – drivers, conductors – employed in eight private transport companies operating on inter-city routes in the province. The union was registered as a trade union with the office of the registrar of trade unions, directorate of labour, government of Sindh, under IRO 1969, in October 2000. Registration took place after an arduous struggle by the workers for one year. “We formed the union in 1999 after many years of witnessing hardship and sufferings of workers – maltreatment and exploitation by owners, harassment and extortion by officials, lack of security and helplessness in times of crises”, tells Sher Nawab Khan, general secretary of the union, near the makeshift office comprising a charpoy under a shady Neem tree at the open space flanking the superhighway where he was advising a bunch of anxious looking drivers and conductors of a bus company who have not received wages for the last three months.

“Some of us who had been driving for years got together, discussed the situation and realised that the only way out could be the formation of a union. But we knew what had happened to the employees of Shalimar Bus Services who dared to register a union. The owners maltreated them and forced them to give in writing that they would never unionise again.

“We decided to form a collective union of the workers of several bus companies and approached the Registrar. The Registrar asked us to bring consent of the owners of the companies. We told him they would not give us the permission. The Registrar then sent his inspector to the Taj Complex, M A Jinnah Road, to verify existence of these companies through their offices. Meanwhile, we also approached the All Pakistan Trade Unions Federation who guided us and facilitated the process of registration.

“We set up our office near Toll Plaza, Gadap Chowk, Superhighway as this is a convenient place for our members to contact us and pay union membership fee. The union collects one-time Rs 120 registration fee and Rs 20 per month membership fee. We have 480 members and the monthly union fund totals to Rs 40,000 to 45,000 that take care of monthly salaries of the four office bearers, office rent, etc, and cater to members’ needs during contingencies. At times we get short of funds, particularly when we are handling cases and court procedures, and have to raise emergency funds.”

The strength in number has empowered the union to confront unlawful tactics of law-enforcing agencies. In March 2005 when the union refused to pay ‘bhatta’ to the police station and highway toll office personnel, the union’s office was raided and sealed. The union registered complaint against harassment with higher police officials and submitted a petition to the High Court Sindh, Karachi. The court directed the police department to not disrupt lawful activities of the union office bearers. Pursued by the union againts Motorway Police, the High Court Hyderabad had given verdict in favour of the union earlier.

“Traffic accidents, and at times illnesses, require long-term and costly treatment which transport workers cannot afford. In such cases, the members are supported fully through the union fund. The union has friends in Baqai Medical University Hospital (near Toll Plaza, Super Highway) who admit the patients referred by us. The Union does not pay cash to the affected member but foots the bills and gives a monthly stipend to the family for household expenses during the worker’s hospitalisation and resultant loss of wages. In cases of fatal accidents, the union puts pressure on the owner of the company to pay compensation of Rs 2,00,000 to the survivors of the affected family. The union itself cannot pay such a big amount.”

and its collection logistically viable. The collection methods vary from organisation to organisation. Some collect a monthly fee ranging from Rs 10 to 20, other unions/organisations charge a monthly collection per vehicle as well, that is, if an operator owns two or three vehicles, he pays accordingly. The linkages established by office bearers with related resource persons (doctors, lawyers, councillors/politicians, media, NGOs) facilitate the organisations to achieve the objectives of collective care arrangements (legal help, medical care, advise on regulatory procedures, news coverage).

Due to deficits in administrative, managerial and strategic skills among members, these arrangements, however, remain informal, carried out on an ad hoc basis and are dependant on several variables (i e, involvement of the union in court procedures and subsequent drying up of the funds, inability of members at times to pay dues, goodwill of office bearers).

Some of the activists-office bearers, of larger transport unions/ federations, have been lobbying with government officials to bring about the required legislative change to include transport workers as bona fide beneficiaries of state social security institutions. Legislative changes in the state-run social security schemes to include informal/causal workers have been recommended earlier in several evaluations. Self-registration, or selfdeclaration by worker – as recommended in a recent study36 – establishment of a central, unified institution for universal coverage, and improved compliance through monitoring are essential ingredients of a universal labour protection system. A universal insurance system for transport workers could be evolved with premium paid as part of vehicle and driver licensing and petroleum products taxes.

The single crucial element of workable collective care arrangements is numerical strength which endows collective struggle with political impact and turns mandatory financial contributions into a meaningful asset. Road transport workers do realise the importance of strength in terms of numbers but are not able to mobilise workers and expand membership due to several constraints. Resourceful civil society institutions need to strengthen the existing organisations/unions and facilitate formation of sector-based larger unions through merger of splintererd vehicle-mode based self-help groups and small organisations.

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Email: zeenathisam2004@yahoo.com

NotesNotesNotesNotesNotes

1 J Drèze and A Sen (1991): ‘Public Action for Social Security: Foundations

and Strategy’ in E Ahmad, J Drèze, J Hills and A Sen (eds), Social Security

in Developing Countries, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

2 As proclaimed in the ILO’s 1998 ‘Declaration on Fundamental Principles

and Rights at Work’. 3 Economic Security for a Better World, ILO, 2004. 4 Decent Work and the Informal Economy, International Labour Conference,

90th Session, Report VI, ILO, Geneva, 2002.

5 Pakistan Economic Survey 2004-05, Government of Pakistan, Finance

Division, Islamabad.

6 Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2003-04.

7 Medium-Term Development Framework 2005-10, Planning Commission,

Government of Pakistan, May 2005.

8 Ibid.

9 Perspective of Civil Society on the Transport Sector in Pakistan, Summary

Report, Vol I, January 24-25, 2000, World Bank. 10 Ibid.

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