October 10, 2014

The Director of Labour,

Government of Sindh,
Karachi
Subject: Problems of workers at The Organic Meat Company (Pvt.) Ltd. in Gadap Town
Karachi
Sir,
We received a delegation of the workers from The Organic Meat Company (Pvt.) Ltd. who are
facing difficulties at the workplace including longer work hours, low wages and absence of
legal documents and health facilities etc. to them.
The companys factory is located at Survey # 310, Deh Shah Mureed, Gadap Town in
Karachi. It is amongst the major meat exporters of Pakistan with modern facilities like
slaughter house/meat processing unit and state of the art technology and compliance with
health and safety standards in line with the international standards as the company
documents claimed.
However, the workers have complained that their normal duty hours are 12 hours. They are
employed without issuing an appointment letters to them. They are removed without any
notice and in case of illness, their daily wages are deducted. They are not paid salaries
according to laws, which are less than the official minimum wages, i.e. Rs. 12,000 per month
in Sindh province. A new worker is recruited without giving him an appointment letter and a
number of workers have been removed because they were demanding raise in their salaries.
There is no CBA (trade union) in the company and whoever is trying to organize the workers,
is removed from the job without any notice. Most of the workers belong to the least
developed villages of Gadap town so they fear an economic collapse in case of being
unemployed when they would try to make legal trade union in the company.
About a year ago a local NGO Gadap Development Social Welfare Organisation had written a
letter to the company about the plight of workers. In reply to the letter, the Managing
Director of the Company had claimed that they are observing labour laws and paying Rs.
10,000 per month to a newly recruited employee. The letter from the company head also
explained the details of the facilities being provided to the workers. (A copy of the company
letter is attached).The workers representatives denied of having such facilities to them.
We request you please conduct an inspection to this important factory, which is violating all
the labour and human rights laws of the land at the earliest and ensure that the company is
doing compliance of all the legal obligations for the workers. We would be highly obliged that
the outcome of your departments intervention may be conveyed to us as well.
Thanking you in anticipation.

Zulfiqar Shah
Joint Director