A representative of India Labourline creating awareness about legal aid to informal sector workers at a labour chowk in Delhi’s Moti Nagar. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

To augment her family’s meagre income, Preeti took up a daily-wager’s job at a utensils manufacturing unit in Sonipat, Haryana, last December. Despite repeated requests, the firm’s owner did not pay her salary for three months. Misfortune followed her as her five-year-old daughter fell from the rooftop and sustained serious injuries. Treatment for her child incurred heavy medical expenses and further plunged the family into financial woes.

Still her pleas for the payment of outstanding dues had no impact on her employer till the time India Labourline, a helpline run by a Working People’s Coalition (WPC), intervened to resolve the matter and got her the dues.

The WPC, a coalition of 150-odd provincial and local organisations of informal sector workers, had started the helpline with its headquarters in Mumbai in July last year to provide legal aid and mediation services to workers, especially the migrants. The Labourline has offices in five States, including Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, and provides free help to workers in any State.

Ms. Preeti’s husband Sunny, who works as a supervisor in a manufacturing unit in Koshambi near Ghaziabad, had stumbled upon the helpline number while searching for contacts of non-government organisations that could probably intervene in the matter of his wife’s non-payment of salary.

“I shared the details of my wife’s job and her outstanding dues and within a fortnight, she received the sum,” he said. Before Mr. Sunny called the helpline, the couple had been to Kundli police station as well, but were told that the matter pertained to the Labour Department and turned away.

However, following a call from the helpline representative to the firm’s owner, Ms. Preeti received 60% of her dues within a few minutes and the balance amount of ₹3,390, was paid within a fortnight. Mr. Sunny told this reporter they had lost all hopes of getting the money and were also not in a position to fight a long legal battle. The helpline representative was godsend.

In another case, Giteshwar Prasad, 27, worked for a Mumbai-based solar panel installation firm for three months in 2020. The owner stopped acknowledging his calls and text messages when he asked for his wages. His employer had sweet-talked Mr. Giteshwar into paying the wages of the staff working under him and also for the construction material and safety gears they used at work. He promised to reimburse all the expenses incurred by him.

“The total dues, including my three months’ salary, came around ₹80,000. It is a huge amount and I often cursed myself for being so gullible. It caused me depression too,” he said. Almost a year later, his sister, a para legal volunteer, introduced him to a lawyer who apprised him of the India Labourline.

Thereafter a couple of calls were made and an email sent to the firm’s owner following which he agreed to make partial payment within a week. “He paid me ₹25,000 and cited his financial struggles. I agreed to it since he was not in a position to pay the entire amount,” said Mr. Giteshwar.

The helpline has received 2,342 complaints from across the country since its launch. Of these, 788 cases have been resolved with the recovery of dues to the tune of ₹1.34 crore. The helpline’s Delhi office alone has managed to recover ₹8.46 lakh outstanding wages in less than a year and resolved almost half of the 332 complaints it received.

Its Delhi co-ordinator, Arshad Ahmed told The Hindu that the helpline is the first-of-its-kind initiative to help the informal sector workers with their work-related issues. “The formal sector workers can approach the Labour Department with their grievances but the informal sector workers do not come under the purview of the labour laws. The only recourse for them in case of wage-theft (non-payment of dues by the employer) is to hire a lawyer at a hefty fee and file a civil suit. At helpline, we try to resolve the matter through mediation,” said Mr.Ahmed.

Though the majority of the complaints received at the helpline pertain to wage-theft, there have also been complaints of violence against the workers, especially the domestic helps. In two such cases, the Delhi team made the employers write apologies and reinstate the complainants.

The helpline team faces challenges when the employers block the phone numbers of their representatives, or delay the payment of dues.

“In such cases, we visit the office or the home of the employers and talk to them directly. It mostly works when we warn them against a civil suit with the help of our network of lawyers,” Mr. Ahmed added.

To spread the word about the helpline, the WPC has reached out to 25,000 workers so far through its awareness programmes at labour chowks, through hoardings and wall paintings, and autorickshaws that do the rounds in JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies making regular announcements about the helpline. Efforts are on to intensify the awareness campaign.

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Printable version | Aug 23, 2022 1:12:03 pm | https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/fighting-for-rights-of-informal-sector-workers/article65287536.ece