A lifeline for labourers

Resolving disputes

India Labourline (1-800-833-9020) has helped hundreds of workers get their pending wages and rights due to them. Credit: DH Photo

For more than a month, Siddharaju and his colleagues had followed up with the contractor about the payment due to them.

They were hired as a mason and helpers at a construction site in Bengaluru, for wages of Rs 950 (mason) and Rs 650 (helper).

After 45 days of work, the contractor refused to pay the Rs 1.6 lakh due to them.

All hope lost, Siddharaju heard the India Labourline during one of their outreach programmes at labour addas, and called the helpline number for assistance.

The tele counselling team followed up on the case and after mediating with the contractor, got him to agree to pay all the dues.

The case was resolved in a few weeks time, and the workers even signed on for a new contract.

The labour helpline is established by the Working People's Charter (WPC), a non-partisan coalition of organisations working on issues related to informal labour in India.

"The lockdown exposed the existing brutality of the labour code," says Chandan Kumar, the national coordinator of the Working People's Charter.

A big issue is that just 3 - 4 per cent of India's workers are covered under statutory labour laws.

"As such, the state has no obligation to provide a redressal mechanism," he says.

In such a scenario, the Indian Labourline's main aim is to provide legal aid and mediation services to labourers, help them recover their dues.

When mediation fails, workers are given help to approach the courts.

In less than a year of functioning, the labourline has fielded 4,500 calls from workers, seeking help or information. There are about 1,446 ongoing cases of wage disputes, accident compensation, bondage, harassment, PF/gratuity and employment termination.

Cases amounting to Rs four crore in wage theft have been registered in 20 states, while Rs 50 lakhs of wages have been successfully recovered from employers.

Another crucial aspect is that the helpline is present in four languages — Kannada, Hindi, Marathi and Telugu.

The presence of trained mediators also helps with the recovery of dues.

Abhay Kumar, who is associated with the Labour Helpline, says they set up the helpline in the aftermath of the Covid crisis, where they encountered several instances of wage theft.

"Rather than depend on handouts, we thought ensuring the workers received their hard-earned wages was the need of the hour," he says.

"I would be happy if the government does it. Imagine, we have covered a small portion of Bengaluru. There are crores of daily wages pending with contractors all across Karnataka," Kumar says.

The labour helpline is just one part of Karmika Gourava Kendra or 'Labour facilitation centre'. The concept was first mooted by the International Labour Organisation and is being implemented by the IIM-Bengaluru.

Along with the labour helpline, the kendras aim to provide identity cards, provide information about government schemes and form a labour bank as well.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: