Hyderabad, January 19: The poor labour force reeling under the Shops and Establishments Act at last find light at the end of the tunnel.
The N Kiran Kumar Reddy government has constituted a labour team to specifically conduct investigations into the employers’ malpractices in respect of maintenance of proper registers for payment, muster rolls, payment of minimum wages to the shops and establishments employees among others under a ‘Social Security’ programme which began with immediate effect.
The social security comes as a boon to the employees working under Shops and Establishment Act with specific directive issued to the Labour Department for punishing the defaulting employers wherever complaints have been lodged against them.
Releasing a diary and calendar of the Labour Department at the Secretariat on Tuesday, Labour and Employment Minister Danam Nagender told media persons that the state government has commenced the complaints process with immediate effect and the Labour Department would swing into action and initiate action against the erring employers who were hoodwinking their employees while extracting work from them.
Under social security scheme, the employers were mandated to issue appointment letters, provide provident fund, Employees State Insurance Health coverage and most of all effect payment of minimum wages to the labour force.
Where the employers do not comply with the government specifications like effecting payment to their staff and contributing their share in the PF etc, the Labour Department officers will take action without fail.
The newly introduced social security measure serves as a boon even to the hitherto erring employers as they have been given a chance to rectify their lapses in one go, by submitting all the employees’ details to enable the government to issue employment letters to those working under them, the Minister said. Mr Nagender added the government will waste no time to directly issue letters of appointment wherever necessary.
The victimised employees could as well approach the Labour Department and submit their details within a week. They could also inform whether they were in receipt of all the benefits from their employers, the Minister added.
As soon as the Labour Department receives the details, the state government will provide the appointment letters to the employees with copies issued to the employer and the Labour Department.
The whole process will last a week and this can also be extended further to render justice to the poor labour force, Mr Nagender pointed out.
The Minister for Labor, Mr Danam Nagender, on Tuesday said that the employers were mandated to submit the details of their employees to the Labour Department during ongoing Social Security Week, otherwise severe action would be initiated against them.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the Labour Department will be observing ‘Social Security Week’ for shop employees from January 18 to 25. It would be extended for some more days, if necessary, he assured. The employers of shops and small firms should furnish the details of their employees like salary, ESI, PF facility and so on. Stating that the employees could also directly submit the details to the Labour department, Mr Nagendar said that if the employees complained against the employer on non-provision of PF facility, the Labour Department would order the employers to deposit its total share of working period of the employee to the PF. During the Social Security Week, teams of Labour Department officials would ensure issue of letters of appointment to the shop employees on the spot, he added.
INN/NSS