New Delhi, April 16: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the government and civic bodies to register all labourers working in Commonwealth Games projects and provide them safety equipment.
A bench headed by acting Chief Justice Madan B Lokur also asked them to provide details regarding workers employed at various sites and the contractors under which they were working.
The High Court passed the order after taking into consideration findings of a report which pointed out violation of human rights of workers involved in construction work at various sites of the games.
The High Court on April seven had sought a response from the Delhi government on whether it could implement a court-appointed panel’s recommendations relating to fixing of wages and working conditions of labourers employed at sites across the capital.
A four-member committee, appointed by the court, had said in a report that workers at Games-related construction sites were not being paid minimum wages and made to work overtime for no extra money.
The panel recommended “exemplary fine” to be levied on errant authorities and said steps needed to be taken to start timebound registration of workers and extend to them benefits like weekly offs and hygienic living conditions.
The committee report claimed the labourers were being exploited since they were hired by contractors who were unaware of labour laws.
The report said many accidents at these sites were never reported while workers continued to work without safety gear and that muster rolls were not verified.
The committee comprised Arundhati Ghose, former representative to the UN, NHRC’s special rapporteur L N Mishra besides labour commissioner and labour secretary of Delhi government.
The directions were passed on a PIL filed by Peoples’ Union For Democratic Rights (PUDR) which alleged the workers were being housed in “crowded hovels” with no protection during winter and no power and filthy or no toilets.
PUDR had sought the high court’s intervention to ensure the workers get insurance cover, wage slips, paid weekly offs, proper medical facilities and workmen compensation, among other things.
Estimating the daily wage contract workers to number roughly 4,15,000, the PIL alleged the Games-related construction work had been granted to private contractors who provided inhuman working and living conditions for the labourers.
-PTI