International Worker’s Day, Hundreds of thousands of Afghan laborers in pursuit of employment

International Worker’s Day, Hundreds of thousands of Afghan laborers in pursuit of employment
International workers’ day is celebrated on 1st of May (11th of Sawar) all over the world, while the greatest wish of Afghan workers is respectable and permanent employment.
Afghanistan also celebrated the day, despite the fact that 30.7% out of 49.66% of labor force is unfortunately unemployed in Afghanistan. Moreover, according to central statistics organization of Afghanistan, 51.7% of the people of Afghanistan are facing multidimensional poverty. The organization also reported results of a survey by ICON institute in 2018, which indicated that 54.5% of Afghans lives below the poverty line.
Here, we discuss the history of International workers’ day, condition of work and laborers in Afghanistan.

International workers’ day
International workers’ day is of the officially recognized international days which has history of more than 133 years. On 1st of May, 1886, American laborers of Chicago city protested to demanded reduction of working hours from 14 hours to 8 hours. In result, the U.S. police harshly responded, which in result, a number of the protesters were killed and some imprisoned.
After 33 years, the sacrifices of Chicago laborers resulted the establishment of International labor organization within the United Nations through the Warsaw pact in 1919. In addition, International labor organization officially joined the United Nations in 1946. Earlier, based on the recommendation of the representative of American workers, International workers congress named 1st of May as the International workers’ day in 1889, in France. This day is still celebrated in all around the world as workers’ day.
Afghanistan however, where limited number of factories are operate and the number of laborers is also low compared to other countries, strong laborers’ agencies were not established throughout the history, neither the labor day was celebrated largely. Although the day was officially celebrated during the governance of Khalq party, but not a remarkable change was witnessed in the condition of workers and alike other stratums of society, laborers and farmers were imprisoned and executed, under the name of anti-revolution characters. However, Gulbahar factory Laborers’ strike, during the time of kingdom in 1965, is worth mentioning. The strike ended with the imprisonment of the leaders of the strike. In addition, worker congregated in Hotel Plaza square of Kabul to revolt against oppressors and unite laborer on 1st of May, 1974.
But obviously, the best time of workers’ movement was after April of 1978, since labor concepts, working class and labor movement entered the political and social literature of the country and classes and unions of laborers were established.

Employment and labor law of Afghanistan
Although the labor law of Afghanistan has considered all of the rights and privileges of laborers, but due to insecurities, weak economy, unstable political condition and poor management, workers are forced to accept all difficulties and law-breakings of employers, or tolerate dozens of dangers of travelling abroad to avoid joblessness.
Article 11 of the labor law of Afghanistan clearly says “In economic and social areas, workers have the right to be provided with health services, work and production safety, trainings and skills development, improvement of professional knowledge and provision of social protection”. However, 44% of the labor force of Afghanistan is busy in agriculture sector and their income is obtained through primary equipment such as shovel and hack. In addition, deputy director of central statistics organization of Afghanistan, around 2.7 million children are busy working. Moreover, According to article 59 and 64 of labor law of Afghanistan, wages should be paid considering the quantity and quality of work, with no regard to rank, grade and without any discrimination and should be paid on time. Nonetheless, even those workers who hold bachelor degrees are paid 150 Afghani per day by the private sector. In addition, dozens of laborers congregate in Kabul and provinces, hoping to find work. But unfortunately, they do not usually find work and return home empty handed.
Moreover, it is stated in article 14 and 101 that there have to be a written agreement between employer and employee through which employee shall be obliged to work for the employer for a definite or indefinite time, in return, he/she will obtain salary and/or other privileges. Work contracts can be terminated in case of 20 days employee absence without a cause or according to the content of (part 3, 4 & 5) article 95 (salary deduction, change of duty station, or repetition if contract is repeated two times in a year). However, contracts mostly do not exist in private sector and even if do, they are prepared unbalanced. Thus, laborers are unsafe in Afghanistan, since whenever employers want, they dismiss employees and hire new ones.
According to the officials, Afghanistan has signed 19 international work agreements, while more than two million people are unemployed in Afghanistan and around 400 thousand are entering the labor force.

Recommendations
● Since the vital challenge related to work is high unemployment rate, therefore the government should initiate infrastructural projects such as, dams, modernization of agriculture, sustenance private sector and enablement of mine extraction, in order to provide work opportunities for the citizens.
● The government should strategically send workers to partner countries, so that the economy can improved through the inflow of money, at the same time, unemployment rate can decrease.
● In order to improve workers’ condition in private sector, the government should provide budget so that advantage is not being taken of the constraints of workers.
● Provision of working skills improvement programs by the government can increase workers’ knowledge and can lead to innovation and improvement in workplace.
● As issues related work and laborers are not greatly discuss through the media, it is necessary for the media, especially Televisions, to pay attention to work related issues, so that rights of laborers are given and the law is implemented.