Occupational safety and health, also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety, occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with people’s safety, health, and welfare at occupation. OHS includes standards, laws, and programs to improve workplace conditions for workers and co-workers, family members, customers, and other stakeholders.
Improving occupational health and safety standards ensure a better brand image, good business, and higher employee morale.
The textile industry is the largest manufacturing industry in Pakistan.
Pakistan is the eighth largest exporter of textile commodities in Asia.
The textile sector contributes 8.5% to the GDP of Pakistan. In addition, the sector employs about 45% of the total labor force in the country (and 38% of the manufacturing workers). Such industries should focus more on OSH to safeguard their workers. Unfortunately, the true spirit of OSH is not being followed in Pakistan’s textile sector. The government and stakeholders should work together to implement the OSH Act Pakistan 2018. This will increase the company’s reputation, and a healthy environment could flourish the efficiency and productivity of workers.
A worker was killed when a cotton bundle fell on him in a textile mill in the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate on Sunday, 28th November 2021. The workers said heavy cotton bundles were being relocated when the incident occurred. There must have been poor compliance with OSH Act. Earlier in 2012, a fire ravaged a textile factory complex in the commercial hub of Karachi early Wednesday, killing almost 300 workers trapped behind locked doors and raising questions about the woeful lack of regulation in a vital sector of Pakistan’s faltering economy.
Such incidents grab global attention and cause a point of concern for Pakistan. Therefore, the government should take immediate and strict actions to implement the OSH in Pakistan’s textile sector.
