No redoubled efforts to improve the lot of CWG workers
PUDR follow-up report shows construction labourers' condition pathetic despite court intervention
GN Bureau | New Delhi | August 30 2010
Four months after a Delhi High Court appointed committee highlighted the dismal conditions of construction workers at Commonwealth Games sites, not much has changed.
According to the findings of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), a civil society organisation, the contractors at various sites continue to pay the workers anything between Rs 110 and Rs 130. As per the law, the minimum wages in Delhi is Rs 203 for unskilled workers and Rs 225 for semi skilled workers.
There are around 40, 000 workers at various CWG sites.
No worker is getting the overtime of Rs 100 per day, as defined in the law. The report says that the contractors are saving more than Rs 360 crore every year by not paying the workers their wages and overtime.
In January 2010, PUDR had filed a public interest litigation in the high court that had appointed a four-member monitoring committee. The committee submitted its report in March, corroborating the findings of PUDR. The committee also put forth strong recommendations including exemplary punishment for those violating labour laws.
On Monday, PUDR released a follow-up report on the violation of workers rights in CWG construction sites.
“Despite the HC order of 7th April, none of the principal employers have as yet devised any mechanism to ensure that labour laws are implemented as per the recommendations of the Committee,” says the report.
About the safety of the workers, the report says that it is compromised routinely, more so in the desperation of meeting the deadlines. “Workers can be seen working at heights without safety belts helmets etc. We have seen workers working without these minimum safety measures at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, R K Khanna Stadium, Khalsa College. The government has yet despite repeated request has not provided a complete list of the workers who have died or have suffered injuries and the compensation awarded to families in each case.”
After the Court’s order, the government claimed that it held camps for registration of workers. The labour department, according to the report, is misleading the Court by quoting inflated figures of the workers registered by showing old expired registrations of workers as fresh registrations.
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