Not less than four migrant workers fell to death in Ernakulam district in quick succession earlier this year after being engaged to cut trees, a work they were completely unfamiliar with and for which they had little skill.
The series of incidents throw light on the indiscriminate deployment of unskilled migrant workers in skilled and semi-skilled jobs with often disastrous consequences not to mention the scant regard given to occupational safety and health (OSH) at their worksites.
"Migrant workers are mostly engaged in 3D (dirty, dangerous, and demeaning) jobs turned down by native workers. Those engage them have the incentive of increased profit margin by cutting down investments on OSH measures while on their part migrant workers have little negotiating capacity. While the recently passed labour code has OSH as an integral part, its enforcement remains a lot to be desired,” said Benoy Peter, executive director of Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development.
Labour department hardly has a mechanism to check the indiscriminate engagement of unskilled migrant workers in semi-skilled or skilled works and to enforce their occupational safety other than issuing general guidelines under the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act.
“The scattered and unregistered nature of the migrant workforce makes enforcement tough. But the situation is likely to be improved in a fortnight or so when we are expected to rollout the Atithi portal for the registration of migrant workers,” said S. Chithra, State Labour Commissioner.
The portal is meant for the registration of all migrant workers coming to the State. Provisions have been made in the portal for self-registration of migrant workers and also by contractors and employers. Among the details to be collected as part of the registration is the skill sets of individual migrant workers, facilitating assignment of jobs based on expertise, said Ms. Chithra.
Mr. Peter observed that better conscience on the part of the end consumers of the labour of migrant workers and civil society and ethical and responsible employment by contractors and employers remain more critical than enforcement, which has limited impact because of the systemic apathy.
The Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society appears to be one of the few agencies to attach importance to the occupational safety and health and training of the workforce, including that of migrant workers.
“We give migrants among our workforce, mostly from West Bengal, training and awareness in safety in their language at the time of induction. Besides, we also provide refresher training about dealing with occupational hazards and dangers at the time of their joining. All our projects also have a safety committee comprising at least four labour representatives,” said P. Eswaramoorthy, senior manager, EHS (Environment Health and Safety), Corporate.
