ILO launches gender-sensitive labour inspection system in Pakistan

LAHORE (Staff Report) - International Labor Organization of Pakistan launched first nation-wide Gender Sensitive Labor Inspection System (GSIS) here on Thursday to check the disparities faced by women job sector.

The gender sensitive system was aimed to ensure equity and non-discrimination in its application and to promote Gender Equality for Decent Employment (GE4DE) in collaboration with Trade and Development (DFATD) Canada.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Country Director ILO, Francesco d’Ovidio explained how the GSIS system is meant to assist the Labor Inspectors in their routine inspections by providing measurable indicators for gauging progress against gender-inclusive targets.

He elaborated that GSIS takes a systems approach which is designed to be a practical exercise to assist labor inspectors in assessing and taking actions on gender gaps and discriminatory practices at workplace to strengthen their approaches to inspection.

Frida Khan, National Project Coordinator (GE4DE) described how International Labor standards provide the framework and guidance for national legislation which can ensure decent work for women and men.

The implementation of labor standards is monitored through the labor inspection system which provides the data for countries to report progress on the application of labor standards.

Labor inspection ensures compliance with national labor legislation as well as good labor practices, to achieve basic workers’ rights, balanced socio- economic development and sound and effective industrial relations as a basis for constructive social dialogue and thus fair economic growth.

Representatives from Provincial Labor Departments explained the GSIS system in detail, particularly about how the information collected from the inspections is fed into a database which is used to generate reports on different themes of wages etc. that apply to different laws and conventions, as well as trends over time.

This provides Labor policy legislators and Policy makers with the requisite information to make informed decisions.

Naseer Baluch, Secretary Labor Department Baluchistan, Zafar Iqbal, Secretary Labor Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ishrat Ali, Secretary Labor Department Punjab, along with officials of ILO, dignitaries from Diplomatic community and UN departments also attended the launching ceremony.