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Workers must be paid for extra hours, says Centre
As the demand for workers in factories jumped after production lines restarted in May, many states relaxed labour laws to extend daily shifts from 8 hours to 12 hours to help industries cope up with the shortage of staff.
The union labour ministry informed a Parliamentary panel that it will insist on appropriate compensation for workers in states which diluted factory laws to allow longer shifts.
As the demand for workers in factories jumped after production lines restarted in May, many states relaxed labour laws to extend daily shifts from 8 hours to 12 hours to help industries cope up with the shortage of staff.
Deposing before the parliament’s standing committee on labour, Hiralal Samariya, labour secretary, said that if an industry makes workers slog for extra hours, then it has to pay 200% of daily basic pay—as stipulated in the law—for each extra hour. Samariya also added that if the worker is on duty in a holiday, then he has to be paid 300% of his basic.
Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal have relaxed labour laws.
Panel chairman, BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab, questioned the authenticity of the ministry’s headcount for migrant workers. When the officials said that they have calculated number of passengers in shramik special trains to conclude that 1.09 crore migrant workers have returned home, Mahtab argued that shramik special trains also carried stranded students and tourists.
Also read: Rajasthan creates most jobs for migrants under govt plan
The panel also insisted that the ministry must come up with special social security card for all migrant workers—those coming through agencies, self-employed or joining factories directly—that will help them getting social security coverage.
The panel said that as migrant workers have started returning to cities, the receiving states must make the social security cards.
