Govt wants invisible workforce to be visible; sends in circular to states to ensure unorganised workers' wages paid through bank accounts

Chennai:

Now the wages of all workers both in organised and unorganised sector will be paid through their bank accounts, according to Union Ministry of Labour and Employment circular.

In a bid to ensure timely payment of workers’ wages following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currencies, the Labour secretary M Sathiyavathy has asked the chief secretaries of all state governments and Union territories to organise camps to facilitate those workers who have not yet been able to open their bank accounts.

The location of these camps and other relevant modalities may be decided at the district level by committee comprising collector cum district magistrate and lead district manager of the bank, the labour officers of the Centre as well as the state government.

The committee has been asked to chalk out a programme on Saturday so that lead district manager can communicate to the banks the location of the camps. 

Meanwhile, Chief Labour Commissioner A K Nayak have also asked the deputy chief labour commissioners to take up the issue with the employers to get bank accounts opened in respect of each contract or casual worker or employee.

The Chief Labour Commissioner has asked the deputy chief labour commissioners to submit a report to the ministry before December 2, 2016 giving details about number of bank accounts opened because of their efforts.

“This has to be accorded top priority as payment has to be made by end of this month or by first week of following month,” the circular which was issued on Friday said.

Similarly, Employee’s Provident Fund Organisation has asked its officials to contact all establishments to ascertain how many workers receive salary in cash and facilitate opening of bank accounts. It is learnt that EPFO is the largest social security organisation serving five crore workers in India.

Interestingly, activists are guarded on their reaction to the move by the Union government. Additional secretary of All India Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangh Geetha Ramakrishnan while welcoming the move said this would make visible the invisible workforce of India. “However, it should be seen how genuine the move is. On one hand the entire construction sector has been hit due to demonetisation with migrant workers losing their jobs and agriculture labour struggling to get wages. It is difficult to assess whom all it will benefit,” she added.