On 14 October 2020, one week after World Day for Decent Work, Pakistani workers across the country converged on the capital city of Islamabad to participate in a sit-in protest calling for an end to anti-worker and anti-people policies.
The sit-in garnered widespread support from unions, associations and organisations of government and public sector employees. The participants were diverse, with workers from the postal, banking and insurance sectors represented by the eight UNI affiliates in Pakistan and joined by another two unions that are pending affiliation with UNI.
The protestors marched from the Islamabad Press Club to Jinnah Avenue, a key road in the central business district, where the sit-in action took place. During the march, protesters demanded an end to the neo-liberal economic policies related to the loans taken by the government from international financial institutions. They also demanded work and wage guarantees by the state, adjustment of wages to inflation, regularisation of contract workers, the instituting of a proper basic pay-scale structure, and an immediate end to the downsizing in government departments and privatisation of education and health services.
