Labour department conducts raids on work sites

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to check exploitation of migrant labourers, the Labour Department will conduct inspections at construction sites in the state to carry out compulsory registration of migrant labourers, Labour Minister Shibu Baby John said on Tuesday. The move is part of the Labour Department’s 100-day action plan, he said.On Tuesday, Labour Department officials conducted raids on nine construction sites in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode and issued stop memo to six of them for violation of Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act and Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act.  It was found that necessary security measures were not taken and labourers were housed in pathetic and unhygienic conditions in most of the construction sites. Minimum wage was denied to migrant labourers and no records or registers were maintained at the construction sites regarding them. Of the 1720 workers in these nine construction sites, 1420 were identified as migrant labourers. The Minister said the department would take necessary steps to provide necessary benefits to the migrant labourers and the registration will ease the process.  The registration process was already implemented in the state, but very few construction companies have shown interest in it, he said. Terming the steps taken as construction industry-friendly, he said that protecting the rights of migrant labourers is important for the construction industry as they are major contributors to the state’s industry. Deplorable working conditions here may prompt them to return to their home states, he said.                                     He said steps will be taken to conduct survey of the migrant labours in collaboration with interested institutions. As of now, no exact data is available on the number of migrant labourers in the state.  The raids were conducted by the department in cooperation with the Factories and Boilers Department and the Construction Workers  Welfare Board. It was led by Joint Labour Commissioner E Venu in Kozhikode, A S Sasiprakash in Ernakulam and Additional Labour Commissioner V L Anilkumar in Thiruvananthapuram. More raids and inspections will be conducted in the coming days and strict measures will be taken, the minister said.