KOCHI: Starting next week, the Labour Department will launch enforcement drives at worksites at night to detect violations of labour and safety norms in view of proliferation of construction activities in the district.
The drives will largely focus on aspects like provision of adequate lighting and safety gadgets to workers.
The move assumes significance in the backdrop of the hit-and-run incident at Muttom in which three migrant workers engaged in Kochi metro work were mowed down by a speeding tanker lorry on Thursday night.
District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla said work on infrastructure projects was mostly done at night owing to a variety of reasons ranging from pollution to traffic issues that posed hurdles to inspection and enforcement. “We will consider what can be done. Ensuring the safety of workers is the responsibility of companies that engage them. The functioning of squads deployed in the last few months will be intensified to detect labour rule violations,” he said.
While the Labour Department aims at undertaking sustained inspections at worksites, a grossly inadequate staff strength stares it in the face. While the number of firms has proliferated in the district, the staff strength for enforcement has not gone up accordingly.
“The Labour Department has just a District Labour Officer and 10 Assistant Labour Officers for enforcement across the district, which is insufficient, to say the least. For instance, Kanayannur taluk with a large jurisdiction and over 10,000 institutions has just two Assistant Labour Officers,” said a senior department official.
Migrant workers often bear the brunt of slackened enforcement. Benoy Peter, executive director of Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, observed that migrant workers constituted majority of casualties at worksites, and that most cases went unreported.
Only migrant workers are being employed for risky work, thanks to the global phenomenon of ‘informalisation’ of work. Workers from Tamil Nadu are less preferred nowadays owing to their better awareness about their rightful wages.
“So, it is the hapless workers from Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe communities in eastern and north eastern parts of the country who are exploited due to language barriers and poor negotiating skills. They are habituated to oppression and subservience. Their work environment remains deplorable irrespective of whether they work during day or night,” Mr. Peter said.
