Advancing social justice, promoting decent work
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International labour standards
Pakistan’s tanning and leather industries : An overview of trends and labour and environmental conditions
The report identifies opportunities for macro level areas of leverage to drive improved compliance with national and international labour standards (including market access and preferential tariff treatment) as well as micro-level interventions to strengthen the capacities of enterprises to comply with national and international labour and environmental standards.
Leather is Pakistan’s third-largest export industry, contributing 4 per cent to GDP. This study maps the sector in Pakistan, from leather tanning to manufacturing of leather goods, and provides insights into the labour conditions and industrial relations in the leather value chain.
Work in the industry is dangerous. Workers face regular exposure to hazardous chemical substances, prolonged use of heavy machinery, long and irregular working hours and other forms of non-compliance with labour standards.
This research, commissioned by the ILO as part of the International Labour and Environmental Standards Application in Pakistan’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ILES) project, provides a reference point for stakeholders engaged in supporting Pakistan’s small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve the sector’s labour and environmental compliance standards, sustainability and competitiveness.
