‘Streamline the functioning of workers' welfare board’

Tamil Nadu AITUC Construction Workers Union has urged the State government to streamline the functioning of the Tamil Nadu Construction and Unorganised Sector Workers Welfare Board in the interest of workers.

The activities of the board have come to a standstill. This was brought to the notice of the government on several occasions by the trade unions, but there is no tangible improvement in the functioning of the board, a press statement of K. Suresh, district president of the union, issued here on Saturday said.

A large number of petitions seeking accident relief, delivery, marriage assistance, and pension are pending with the board for a long time. The unions have been demanding the board not to insist on the physical presence of the workers at the time of enrolment with the board. Giving scant respect to this demand, the board has directed the workers to appear in person for renewing their enrolment, he alleged and demanded the government to concede to their demands.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/streamline-the-functioning-of-workers-welfare-board/article4566897.ece

India has too many labour regulations: Rajan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 15:  

India has the least number of workers protected under law in the world even as the country’s labour market has too many regulations, Raghuram Rajan, Chief Economic Adviser in the Finance Ministry, said today.

“India’s labour market is over regulated ... One of the features of the Indian labour market is that it gets the strongest protection under law. But if you look at workers’ protection in India compared to world, we have the least number of workers protected,” Rajan said while addressing the India Today Conclave here.

“We have too much regulation, we have too many regulations at the wrong time, sometimes little less regulation at the right time. We need to figure out what we need and pick out what we don’t need,” he added.

Labour reforms have been pending in India for long.

Amendments to various labour laws have been awaiting Parliamentary approval.

Rajan also emphasised careful implementation of the Government’s welfare programmes.

“The Government’s subsidies have to be carefully targeted, and subsidy programmes have to be efficient, we as a poor country, cannot afford a poorly targeted or inefficient welfare programme,” he said.

On growth and equity, Rajan said, “We currently have programmes such as food, education health and pensions but the key question is, how much should we do, who should be target.”

Rajan, a former chief economist of IMF, predicted that the welfare state in Europe and the US is unsustainable. Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

High court seeks report on child labour, missing children

NEW DELHI: Taking a serious view of the problem of missing children and child labour in the capital, the Delhi high court on Wednesday sought a comprehensive report from the state government and Delhi Police.

A division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain ordered the authorities to give details of how many child labourers were rescued and action taken against employers since 2009 when it first took suo moto cognizance of the issue. 

HC gave time till May 1 for a comprehensive report on a PIL filed by Save the Childhood Foundation, an NGO, seeking elimination of child labour from the capital. 

"How many raids have you conducted, how many children were rescued, what action you have taken to prosecute the employers and what steps have been taken to rehabilitate the children since 2009," the bench demanded, wondering why just 74 raids were conducted during two years in which 900 children were rescued. 

The petitioner's counsel Prabhashay Kaur highlighted that the labour department has failed to comply with the directions passed by HC in 2009 to rescue the child labourers and rehabilitate them as per the action plan formulated by a committee comprising officers from various departments. 

Referring to a report filed by the labour department, Kaur said the court had earlier directed to rescue 500 children per month but as per the report, only 682 children were rescued last year.

High court seeks report on child labour, missing children

Rajasthan rank high in child labour

TNN | Mar 12, 2013

JAIPUR: Rajasthan accounts for nearly 10% of the total child labour in the country with Jaipur alone having more than 50,000 child labourers in the age group of 5-14 years. The state stands third after UP and Andhra Pradesh as far as child labourers are concerned.

According to a report, " Children in India-2012" released by Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation, there has been considerable increase in the number of child labourers in the state. The data is based on 2001 census.

The rescue of 284 children from 55 child traffickers in the past two days has brought to light the ugly reality in Rajasthan. "The situation is quite alarming. If you count the total figures for the state, it will stand at around 13 lakh," said Vijay Goel, general secretary, Resource Institute for Human Rights. The latest figures available are of census 2001, but it must have certainly gone worse with the figures of census 2011 coming out in few months," added Goel.

However, the annual health survey of 2010-11 in the work status category mentions that Rajasthan constitutes 5% of work force in the age group of 5-14 years. The worst performing among all is Jhunjhunu district with 10.8%.

Interestingly, a large number of children working in Rajasthan are brought from Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. In western Rajasthan, most of these children are forced into salt industry while in south Rajasthan they are engaged in farming of BT cotton. The worst situation is in the districts of Alwar and Bharatpur where children are forced to work in cracker industry where the risks are too high.

"The prime industries where children are employed are in manufacturing of bangles, embroidery and weaving of carpets. These products need soft hands to give the finesse. These children are then pressed to work for 14 to 16 hours a day on a meager salary of Rs 800 to Rs 2,000 per month," said an official.

Source claims that labour department which is mandated to check such units are both apathetic and unequipped. Recently, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights ( NCPCR) too detected large-scale child labour at brick kilns in Bhilwara district and expressed surprise over the district administration's indifference on the issue.

Rajasthan rank high in child labour

Law’s labour lost!

The Workers’ Act, meant to safeguard the lives of construction workers, has loopholes that have been exploited by builders letting labour contractors take the fall — something the Labour Commission intends to change soon

In August, 18 construction workers lost their lives because of unsafe living conditions or accidents on construction sites. If one looks at the figures available till August 2011, then the number of labourers who have died come to 60. This, despite there being a provision in the constitution to safeguard the lives of these labourers. The Workers’ (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, is toothless and has not been used against a single builder or developer when a construction worker has died on site. All cases for these deaths have been registered against contractors, who supply labour for these constructions. Now, organisations working for the welfare of construction workers are demanding a proper implementation of the law, by insisting that the builder or developer should be made responsible if such a situation arises. And while the Labour Commissioner’s office said that builders are taking advantage of loopholes that exist in the law, the builders claim that every case should not be measured in the same manner as in certain cases it could be the workers’ or contractors’ fault who sometimes refuse to adhere to security measures they are provided. Since 2007, over 530 deaths have been registered in Pune district alone. And one could blame the lack of enforcement of the Workers’ (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, as not a single builder has been charged for being responsible for the death of construction workers. When we spoke to Baba Kamble, president of Bandhkam Kamgar Panchayat, he said, “The lack of safety measures and poor living conditions of construction workers result in as many as 100 of them losing their lives every year. The reason is obvious — builders and contractors do not provide enough security measures and health facilities.” Mentioning how toothless the Act is, Kamble said, “The law says that the principal employer of the construction workers can be booked for causing death due to negligence. However, the said Act has never been implemented so far. The labour commission followed by the police end up charging the contractor under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).” Kamble said that the responsibility of enforcing the Act lies with the Labour Department and the labour commissioner. This is missing. “It is all to protect wealthy builders.” he alleges. Kamble informs Mirror that Section 44 of the Act says that an employer shall be held responsible for providing constant and adequate supervision of any construction work, otherwise he shall be liable to imprisonment for up to three months and a fine. Section 53 of the same Act indicates that associates, management or partners of  the employer shall be deemed guilty of that offence and be liable to be  proceed against and punished  accordingly. T G Cholke, additional labour commissioner, said, “Builders often take advantage of loopholes in the law and most cases of negligence resulting in deaths of these construction workers get registered against contractors. However, we have now decided to lodge a complaint against both parties. We are soon going to launch a safety drive in which we will file a case against the builders and contractors in case of deaths due to failure of security measures.” When questioned, Rohit Gera, vice president of the Pune Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), said, “It is wrong to charge all under the said Act. Sometimes, the worker himself may be responsible for his death. In many  cases, contractors do not implement security measures despite us providing it to them. Each case should be investigated independently and only then should a case for the crime be registered.”Gera further added that CREDAI often conducts security audits on all their 1,850 ongoing sites to avoid any mishaps. Source: http://www.punemirror.in/article/2/2011092620110926054641737a75b03d5/Law%E2%80%99s-labour-lost.html

Labour Welfare Organisation gives hope to wards of beedi workers

Syed Muthahar Saqaf

TIRUCHI: The Labour Welfare Organisation of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment disbursed education scholarship and attendance incentive to the tune of Rs. 19 crore to about 1.40 lakh school and college going wards of beedi workers in the state during last year.

While education scholarship ranging from Rs. 250 to Rs. 8,000 per annum is provided to both boys and girls, the attendance incentive is given only to girl students of classes from V to VIII.

The Labour Welfare Organisation provided an annual scholarship of Rs. 250 to students of classes from I to IV; Rs. 500 to students of classes V to VIII; Rs. 700 to students of class IX; Rs. 1,400 to students of class X; and Rs. 2,000 to students of classes XI and XII. The department provided every year Rs. 3,000 to the wards of beedi workers pursuing diploma, under graduate and post graduate courses and Rs. 8,000 to those pursuing professional courses.

The total annual family income should not exceed Rs.10,000 per month for getting the education scholarship, D. Job Prince, Deputy Welfare Commissioner, Labour Welfare Organisation, Tirunelveli, told ‘The Hindu'.

To check the practice of girls in the school going age getting engaged in beedi rolling and encourage them to attend the schools, the Department is providing attendance incentive to the girls of classes V to XII. An incentive of Rs. 440 is given to each beneficiary at the rate of Rs. Two per day and is given to a maximum of 220 days.

During last year, education scholarship and attendance incentive worth Rs. 19 crore was disbursed to about 1.40 lakh beneficiaries of Tirunelveli; Vellore; Tiruvannamalai; Tiruchi, Erode, and Salem districts and Chennai city.

Mr. Job Prince said while scrutinising the applications for incentive and scholarship, the department noticed that some of them who were not involved in beedi rolling had applied for the same. To check this, from the academic year 2010-11, the wards have been directed to produce the beedi workers pass books and provident fund receipts to the officials when they come for verification of the applications. The scholarship will be sanctioned only if these documents were produced by the applicants, Mr. Job Prince said. The official will undertake the verification of the applications after duly informing the school authorities to enable the students to remain well prepared to produce the same, he added.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2011/05/20/stories/2011052059970100.htm

Beedi workers demand rise in wages

They are getting only Rs.50 for rolling 1,000 beedis

NIZAMABAD: Beedi rollers and packers, under the banner of Andhra Pradesh Beedi Workers' Union, took out a rally here on Saturday and later staged a dharna demanding the government to issue the final G.O in the place of draft notification given on November 30 last increasing their wages.

Addressing the gathering of beedi workers at the Collectorate, the union State president V. Krishna deplored that beedi workers were lowest paid amongst the working class in the State. While prices of all essential commodities were skyrocketing, the beedi workers were hardly getting Rs.50 for rolling 1,000 beedis, he said.

When the workers were suffering from different ailments rolling and packing beedis for year, the owners of beedi industries were amassing wealth, he said and pointed out that the managements were spending a maximum of Rs.199 for making Rs.1,000 beedis, but they were getting Rs.400 by selling them.

Plea to issue final G.O.

Coming down heavily on the government for not issuing the final G.O. to implement payment of Rs.145 for rolling 1,000 beedis, Rs.5,000 per month for sorters and staff members, Rs.7,000 for head clerks and Rs.10,000 for managers provided in the draft notification, he said that it had promised to bring in the GO within 60 days, but failed to keep its word.

The union's State general secretary M. Narender described the delay in issuance of GO as injustice to the working class.

Appealing to all the elected representatives to exert pressure on the government, he said eight lakh families depended on the beedi industry in the State.

The union district president Muthanna presided.

Source:The Hindu, Sunday, Apr 24, 2011

RESOURCE METERIAL

RESOURCE METERIAL

A Handbook on Labour Laws of India

Labour Rights and Labour Standards for Migrant Labour in India

For stranded migrants, a jail stint is the first step towards freedom

An immigrant’s travails highlight the challenges that workers stranded overseas face while trying to return home

Hyderabad: Durgam Dastagiri spent nearly five months trying to get thrown into a Saudi jail. It was the only way he could go home.

A slight, bird-like man with a neatly groomed moustache, Dastagiri is one of approximately 4.5 million Indian workers who have moved to countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), to take up semi-skilled jobs to support families in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sometimes, the job is all that is promised. More often, it isn’t. And, because of the unique, almost repressive laws governing immigrant workers in most West Asian countries, many find themselves stranded.

“We’ve had cases of people who have been stuck not just for four and five years, but 18, 20 years. We ask them why they stayed so long and they say they didn’t know what else to do,” says Mehru Vesuvala, who works at Migrant Workers Protection Society in Bahrain. “They tried to leave and found that they could not.” Read More

Source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/19000236/For-stranded-migrants-a-jail.html?h=B