Excerpts from the speech by Azam Syed Zia (All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions - APFUTU) at the 6th meeting of the International Trade Union Network of Solidarity and Struggles, 13-16 November 2025

[...] Today, the government of Pakistan, with the involvement of the ITUC, the EU, and the IMF, is pushing for a new national labour code. They claim this code is a reform. But for workers, it is a threat. If passed, it will strip away essential protections and deepen the vulnerability of industrial workers, construction workers, brick-kiln workers etc, and the informal sector. It may open the door for more child labour, more bonded labour, and more forced labour—at a time when workers are already struggling under low wages, unsafe conditions, and constant insecurity.

Across Pakistan’s private sector, millions of workers are employed with no safety, no contracts, no social protection—not even the promise of a living wage. In the brick-kiln and construction, industries workers alone, more than 85 million workers face some of the harshest conditions in the region: no education for their children, no healthcare, no pensions, and no path to freedom from debt. These sectors have become breeding grounds for forced labour, bonded labour, and child labour. Employers routinely violate labour rights and trade union rights, and far too often they do so with government support—or government silence.

What is most painful is that the government refuses to engage in dialogue with grassroots labour unions—the very unions that fought for decades to secure legal protections, including the Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Acts of 2016 and 2018 and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1992. These laws were not gifts; they were won through sacrifice, struggle, and the blood and sweat of workers. And now, the new labour code threatens to erase them completely. Such a step backwards would be a historic defeat for labour rights in Pakistan.

Since 2022, we have witnessed an alarming crackdown on trade union rights. Hundreds of unions and federations have been banned or deregistered. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu & Kashmir, trade union activity is completely prohibited. These areas are home to major brick-kiln and construction markets, which means the ban strikes directly at the workers who need union protection the most.

In Punjab and Sindh—traditionally the strongholds of labour activism—only a small number of unions are still able to operate. Meanwhile, the government has removed 105 categories of workers from official notifications and imposed a minimum wage of barely €75 per month, the same for skilled and unskilled workers alike. It is not a living wage—it is a poverty wage. Combined with high taxes, rising prices, and unaffordable electricity and gas bills, workers in Pakistan face a daily struggle for survival.

My friends, this is not only economic injustice. It is a systematic assault on labour rights, trade union rights, and social justice itself. The situation is critical, and it demands immediate, united international action.

We therefore urge ILNSS to bring this situation to the attention of the ILO and the European Union, to express solidarity with the Pakistani working class and to support our demands for justice, rights, and dignity.

Our struggle is not isolated. We stand in full solidarity with the peoples and working classes of Cuba, Belarus, Venezuela, Colombia, and Sudan as they confront their own difficult circumstances. We also stand with our comrades across Europe—in Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus—who continue their fight for labour rights, pension protections, and social justice.

Beyond Pakistan, we must also draw attention to the massive workforce preparing for the FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. Millions of migrant workers—from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, and beyond—are employed in construction under conditions that too often violate their basic human and labour rights. Their suffering must not be hidden. Our solidarity must extend across borders, across regions, across oceans.

Comrades, the global labour movement is strongest when we stand together. The challenges we face in Pakistan are immense, but with your solidarity, your voices, and your pressure on international institutions, we can push back. We can defend the rights of workers, restore the space for trade unions, and protect the future of generations to come.

For the dignity of labour.
For the freedom of workers.
For the strength of our unions.