Follow-up distress calls of workers strictly: Chief Labour Commissioner

CLC says workers have complained of job losses and non-payment of wages

The Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) has sent a letter to all the regional heads, telling them to do a “rigorous” follow-up of distress calls from workers, especially the migrants, who are facing troubles due to the nationwide lockdown aimed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Significantly, the CLC, who belongs to the Union Labour and Employment Ministry, has acknowledged that there have been instances of job losses and non-payment of wages by employers after the lockdown.

Terming the outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus as a “national crisis”, CLC Rajan Verma said that the labour commissioner’s regional offices “have been getting distress calls from employees and workers across the country wherein they are complaining about their hardship due to either loss of employment or non-payment of wages.” “We have also witnessed a large number of fleeing of migrant workers out of panic which has further added to their miseries,” Verma said.

Verma said that such distress calls from workers should be taken up “rigorously” by the regional offices with all the employers and contractors of both public and private enterprises.

Though the Central government has sent a missive to all private companies, urging them not to retrench workers or deduct their wages but this was only in the form of an advisory.

The CLC further told its regional officers to constantly be in touch with the State governments to get updates on the arrangements towards food and shelter facilities for migrant workers. “Distress workers and their family members can be guided and placed in these shelters,” Verma noted.

However, the CLC can only monitor the activities of  industries belong to the central sphere. This includes all central public sector units and private sector units in the civil aviation, banking and finance, telecommunications, insurance, ports, dock, and mines sectors.

For past one week, there has been an exodus of migrant workers from cities to their domicile states, especially Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Since all modes of transportation were banned between the states, the migrants chose to cover hundreds of kilometers on foot. The situation led to the Central government, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh governments coordinating to help thousands of migrant workers get buses over the weekend.

But when thousands of migrants thronged the Anand Vihar bus station in Delhi, the Home Ministry took serious note of the incident on Sunday and directed the states to seal its border and not allow further movement of migrants. It directed the States to provide food and shelter to the migrants and ensure that one month house rent is not charged, while wages are also not deducted by the employers during the lockdown period.