Bengaluru A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj directed the state labour department to appear before the court on Thursday after a report submitted before the Karnataka high court said a commission was charged for providing compensation for domestic workers.
A report submitted by the Karnataka State Legal Service Authority (KSLSA) to the Karnataka high court said that domestic workers were being charged a commission at Seva Sindhu Kendras, to register them on the Seva Sindhu portal for availing ₹2,000 one-time compensation announced by the government as relief in view of the lockdown.
“Let him come with a solution and action they are going to take against these people…Tell the labour secretary, don’t give us figures of those persons who have received the sum of ₹2,000 as those who have received the amount have had to face the ordeal of paying this ₹200 at the centres,” said the bench.
The direction was given during the hearing of a petition filed by the Domestic Worker Rights Union. The bench took serious note of the commission being charged since the government had said that the process of providing compensation would be free of cost.
The KSLSA report said that despite the state government announcing a relief package of Rs.2,000 to the unorganized sector workers, there is a lack of awareness created. The government has made provision for online application in Seva Sindhu Portal but due to illiteracy and lack of awareness, the workers of unorganized sectors are not able to upload the application online.
{{/usCountry}}The KSLSA report said that despite the state government announcing a relief package of Rs.2,000 to the unorganized sector workers, there is a lack of awareness created. The government has made provision for online application in Seva Sindhu Portal but due to illiteracy and lack of awareness, the workers of unorganized sectors are not able to upload the application online.
{{/usCountry}}“Instead of helping unorganized sector workers to make an application, concerned labour department is only driving the labourers to approach Seva Sindhu Centres wherein they charge commission fee ranging between Rs.100 and Rs. 250…. the fee amounts to almost 10% of the package announced by the state government,” read the report by the KSLSA.
The state government and the labour department should have developed a mechanism to assist unorganized sector workers to make an application, the report said. “In fact, this defect is leading to a situation wherein genuine workers are not approaching Seva Sindhu Centres, rather those workers or their group, who are politically or otherwise influential have been successful in accessing the government packages,” it added.