Ajay Kumar, a labourer from Bihar working in a construction site at Kakkanad, remains caught between a rock and a hard place. If he goes back home, which he plans to do at the earliest, he fears that he will have to forgoing his pending wages of ₹22,000. And there seems to be many others like him.
“These workers are returning to absolute penury and it is not easy for them to forgo those dues. In fact, many of them were so broke that they had to skip the train back home as they weren’t able to raise the ticket fare,” said George Mathew, coordinator, Progressive Workers Organisation.
District Labour Officer V.D. Biju, however, said the Labour Department was yet to come across complaints about pending dues.
Small-time contractors engaging migrant workers were not in a position to immediately clear the dues. “Though works have restarted to some extent, it is not clear how long it will take for us to start generating revenue,” said V.S. Shahajan, a contractor from Nedumbassery. The uncertainty over the scheduling of trains is also making life difficult for migrant workers. “Trains are scheduled at short notice with the intimation coming just hours before the scheduled departure,” said Railway Protection Force sources. Mr. Mathew said because of the uncertainty, many workers were giving up what little work was coming their way . However, the police said the advantages of operating trains at short notice surpassed the disadvantages. “We are finding enough migrants to board these trains anyway. However, if these trains are announced in advance, then there is the risk of anxious migrants overcrowding at the station or even blockading trains,” said a senior officer.
