The Kerala chapter of India Labourline (ILL), a national-level toll-free helpline for informal workers in distress, has received 1,227 complaints of ‘wage theft’ worth around ₹2.41 crore from migrant workers in 18 months since it started operations in Kochi.
Out of these complaints, 240 plaints were fully resolved in which the workers’ claims were fully honoured. However, in 153 complaints, only a fraction of the wage dues was met with negotiations still ongoing. Majority of the complaints were from construction workers in Ernakulam district, hailing from West Bengal and Assam, hinting that it accounts for only a small percentage of migrant workers facing similar issues across the State.
“So far, we could help recover wages or dues amounting to ₹55 lakh. In terms of resolution, we could resolve one in every five complaints fully and one in three partially. Either the employers who decline to pay wages or the contractors who default on distributing wages received from employers are at fault in complaints related to wage theft,” said Benoy Peter, executive director, Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, which runs the Kerala chapter of ILL.
In majority of the complaints, the victimised workers, most of whom are footloose workers who keep moving around, lack evidence of employment or wage dues, leaving little room for legal resolution. Workers cannot complain against the employer as it will invite repercussions in the form of loss of job and accommodation, said Mr. Peter highlighting the plight of informal workers.
In some cases, employers promise to pay wages in lump sum at the end of the work lasting from days to months but then fail to mobilise the required funds. The political and economic heft of employers also leave workers at a great disadvantage. The police are often reluctant to intervene citing it as the domain of the Labour department.
“We have received complaints for wage dues running into a few lakhs, which involves dues owed to a group of workers, to claims for a paltry few hundred. There are around 10 cases of worksite deaths, which entail claims of up to ₹15 lakh. While four to five months of mediation is considered ideal, it often goes way beyond it,” said Disha D., centre coordinator.
Though 48 cases, in which there were some evidence to back up the claims, have so far been referred to the District Legal Services Authority, not a single case has been resolved yet. In fact, none of the employers turned up at an adalat organised by the authority last December.
With the service of only a single multi-lingual tele-counsellor available now, the Kochi centre has scaled down its functioning compared to over a 100 complaints they catered to in a month when it had multiple tele-counsellors.
