Pakistan: Social compliance can boost Pak textile exports

KARACHI: As most of the textile industries depend on contract workers for their operations in South Asia including Pakistan, social compliance requirements for the foreign buyers has become a little difficult for manufacturers—but meeting these requirements can bolster Pakistan textile exports, Director National Projects, Gen-Prom UNDP, Maham Nasira said Friday.

Speaking to the participants of a seminar organised by Pakistan Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute (PRGTTI) on “Social Compliance for the Foreign Buyers” held at PRGTTI the other day, she said that majority of the textile units such as sewing, finishing and packing are employing contract workers and factories owners pay to the contractors instead of workers directly.

She said that with the implementation of social compliance, exporters could get at par with their rivals in the industry including China, India, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia.

She said that since more than 80 percent of the workers in a textile factory are hired on contract basis being supplied and managed by the contractors, managing records, payroll and timings of the contract labor are the biggest tasks for the factories to meet social compliance requirements of international buyers.

She said that the PRGTTI-CDC has organised two sessions of seminar on social compliance in order to discuss and identify issues of contract labor in achieving social compliance requirements and address the related issues. The session was a huge success accompanied by overwhelming response from the industry.

HR managers/executives, factory representatives, compliance managers and DGM HR of leading export organisations attended the session with their teams including Liberty Mills Ltd, The Towellers, Yunus Textile Mills, Shahbaz Group, Rajby Industries, JNM Clothing, Prime Safety, Mustaqim Dyeing & Printing, Midas safety and International Textiles Ltd.

Most of them commented the session was informative especially for the compliance people and found worthy tips to implement at their facilities. “We really gained knowledge regarding the labor laws,” participants said. staff report