From Legislative Recognition to Meaningful Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Provincial Home-Based Workers Legislation in Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan, women engaged in the informal home-based sector, mainly part of global value chains, have largely been left out of the labour law. The devolution of the labour law from the federal government to provinces after the 18th amendment paved the way for the enactment of dedicated labour laws, such as the Sindh Home Based Workers Act, 2018, and the Punjab Home Based Workers Act, 2023, which is a historic legislation by the province of Punjab. This article is a critical consideration of the question as to whether this recognition is matched with meaningful protection. It then builds and applies a five-dimensional framework towards meaningful protection through a comparative doctrinal approach that draws on the concepts of inclusive legal definition, enforceable substantive rights, empowered institutional architecture, automatic social protection integration, and collective voice with access to justice. The analysis shows that there is a huge disparity in terms of symbolic recognition and rights, in all provinces, in relation to enforceable rights. There are significant gaps in the definition (own account self-employed workers are excluded), the system of wage-setting (which rely on recommendations but don't have a formula that converts a piece-rate to a minimum wage), the lack of linkage between the HBW registration and social security institutions, and the lack of executive powers for the enforcement bodies. The study concludes that, in the absence of any effort to tackle these structural design defects, the landmark laws may serve to legitimize information rather than eradicate it, and provide low cost signals of international compliance without providing protection for workers. Finally, the article recommends a second generation of reform that is based on inclusive definitions, compulsory social security linkage, principal employer responsibility, and enforcement by workers.