"Over 1000 migrant workers issued work permits"
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR
Imphal, July 23 2016 :
The Labour Department,
Government of Manipur has
issued licenses or work permits
to a little over one thousand
migrant workers who have
been brought in by various
companies/agencies and con-
tractors, both from the State as
well as from outside the State,
informed E Tomba Singh,
Deputy Labour Commissioner
today in the course of a press
conference held at DIPR
complex, Moirangkhom.
This
press conference is the 31st in
the series of media interaction
programmes organized by
DIPR to highlight the develop-
ment activities of the various
departments of the Government
of Manipur.
The licenses were issued
mostly to some big compa-
nies like the Simplex
Infrastructure, Simplex
Projects, Keystone, and oth-
ers special contractors of the
State.
The Labour Department
started issuing licenses to
migrant workers with re-
newed vigour from 2014
onwards especially in the
wake of a very strong move-
ment for implementation of
ILPS in the State.
Answering queries from
media persons, the depart-
ment officials further in-
formed that even though
monitoring of migrant labour-
ers coming into the State is
not under its purview, it none-
theless can take punitive
action against companies or
contractors employing mi-
grant labours without proper
licenses at any of its work
sites.
The Labour Department
according to Tomba Singh is mandated to
provide care, protection,
settlement of disputes arising
out of employment, or non-
employment, terms of
employment or conditions of
labour, welfare and social
security of various workers in
the State sphere under 25
different labour laws as in force
in Manipur.
It does so under
the provisions of some 26
Labour Laws which include
among others the Trade Unions
Act, 1926, the Children
(Pledging of Labour) Act,
1933, the Payment of Wages
Act, 1936, the Industrial
Employment (Standing
Orders) Act, 1946, the
Industrial Disputes Act,1947,
the Minimum Wages Act,
1948, the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act, 1976,
the Inter-State-Migrant
Workmen (Regulation of
Employment & Conditions of
Service) Act, 1979, the Child
Labour (Prohibition &
Regulation) Act,1986, the
Working Journalists and
Other Newspaper Employees
(Conditions of Service)
Act,1955.
The Deputy Labour Com-
missioner further said that in
case of disputes between the
workers and their employers
arising out of employment or
non- employment are settled
through conciliation proceed-
ings or adjudication under the
Industrial Disputes Act,
1947.Unfair labour practice,
illegal strike, illegal lock-out,
illegal retrenchment, lay-off
and illegal closure were
checked under the said Act.
All the employers of the
industrial establishments em-
ploying 100 or more
workmen have noticed to set
up their respective Grievance
Redressed Committee under
and in accordance with the
provisions of section 9C of
the Act.
During 2015-16,
three disputes were inter-
vened under the Act.
Minimum rates of wages
have been fixed under Mini-
mum Wages Act, 1948 for
the workers employed in
fifteen different Scheduled
Employments, said E Tomba
Singh.
Further, steps have
been taken up for fixing mini-
mum rates of wages for the
workers employed in eight
other sectors which include
employment in domestic
works, employment in private
educational institute, employ-
ment in private hospital,
nursing homes, or clinic and
employment in brick kilns.
The department has pro-
posed revising the minimum
rates of wages from Rs
122.10 per day to Rs 225 per
day for unskilled labour, Rs
129.97 per day to Rs 248 per
day for semi-skilled labour
and Rs 132.60 per day to Rs
273 per day for skilled labour
in fifteen different scheduled
employments under Mini-
mum Wages Act, 1948.
On the Majithia Wage
Board in the State, the
Deputy Labour Commis-
sioner said though newspaper
establishments in the State are
yet to implement it, efforts are
on to do so in near future.
In
this connection, three inspec-
tors have been appointed as
per the direction of the Su-
preme Court to monitor the
newspaper establishments on
the implementation of the rec-
ommendations of the wage
board and one State level Tri-
partite Monitoring Committee
has also been constituted by
the State Government of
Manipur.
The Deputy Labour Com-
missioner also appealed to the
newspaper employees who
are aggrieved by the non-im-
plementation of the same to
make a submission to the
State Government of Manipur
for the recovery of amount
due to them from their re-
spective employers.
On the prevalence of child
labour in the State in hotels,
restaurants, vehicle work-
shops as well as domestic
help, he said any child under
14 cannot be employed in any
form and punitive action
against these establishments
and individuals can be taken
up under the Child Labour
(Prohibition & Regulation)
Act 1986.He also appealed
to the public to inform the
department in case some es-
tablishments are found
employing children under the
age of 14 .
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