Institutional History
PILER was founded on 1 May 1982 by a group of concerned individuals from trade union movement, academia and varied professions. The Institute started from a small rented office, with simple organizational structure, informal work procedures and modest funding from the United Workers’ Federation and donations from well-wishers and friends. PILER was registered under the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration and Control) Ordinance 1961.

PILER’s research and education programme gradually expanded and in 1988 PILER established a formally designed research and training programme with regular workshops, courses and advocacy activities through the funds availed from the Federatie Netherlandse Vakbeweging (FNV), a Dutch confederation of trade unions sympathetic to workers’ cause in South Asia. The Netherlands Organisation for International Development Cooperation (NOVIB) came forward to support PILER’s women and children workers ‘ programmes. The two other partner organizations that allied with PILER’s cause and extended institutional and programme support during the last two decades were the Freres des Hommes (FdH), and the Stichting de Zaaier.

PILER opened its branch office in Lahore in 1992 to facilitate access of its education, training and advocacy programmes to the workers in the provinces of Punjab and NWFP. The year 2000 was a landmark in the organisation’s institutional history as PILER shifted to its own custom-designed building constructed on 2,385 square yards of land. Equipped with a hostel, conference hall, library, board meeting room, common room and dinning hall, the spacious office—designed by the PILER’s friend and well-known architect-activist-urban planner Arif Hasan—was built with the generous financial support from Stichting De Zaaier, plus a fund pooled in by PILER’s international partners, local philanthropists, friends and well-wishers.

In 2001, PILER expanded its activities further with financial and technical support from the European Union (EU). By the end of the year 2002, PILER had 50 plus staff, including programme and support staff, undertaking education, training, mobilisation and advocacy activities in the four provinces, with head office in Karachi and branch office in Lahore.

PILER’s main institutional and programme support for the year 2003-04 was extended by the FNV-NOVIB up to June this year (2008) under the project “Promoting Social Justice: Education, Research and Mobilization for Labour Rights”. In 2002 PILER undertook a project, Empowering Vulnerable Workers in Pakistan, funded by the European Union Consortium for a 3-year period (2002-04), which was extended up to March 2006.

In March 2005, PILER revised its work plan to return to a much stronger and original emphasis upon reflection in action by the labour movement. The thrust of the Work Plan for 2005-2007 was to make a smooth transition through pre-defined strategies towards a smaller and recast organisation as a resource centre for the labour movement, offering direct and indirect support (through education and policy advocacy on labour and related issues).