The bulk of labour complaints from the private sector
In the past one year, the ministry’s grievance redressal cell has received 25,423 complaints.
The complaints related to private sector companies include those of ineffective labour inspectors, firms not abiding by Human Resource (HR) policies, benefits not being given out on time and unlawful termination.
“In our company, we do not even have a labour inspector; forget him/her being effective. We work extra hours almost every day and sometimes even on weekends. We have taken up the issue with the HR but no action has been taken so far. We feel we are being exploited,” a 36-year-old software employee said, adding that some of her colleagues were forced to approach the ministry after they found their complaints were falling on deaf ears at work.
Similar is the story of a former Gurgaon-based call centre employee. He joined the company three years ago and was promised a five-day week with nine working hours a day. “All those promises were false. I complained repeatedly but no action was taken. Hence, I approached the grievance cell and later quit my job…” he said.
“We as government officials can only play an advisory role. The company needs to take a stand against flouting labour laws. But the complaints we have received, we have written to the concerned employers. If we find that a company is a repeat offender, stricter action would be taken against it,” an official from the labour ministry said.
In other issues that surfaced in the analysis, Provident Fund-related complaints made up for 17 per cent of the total. Slow processing by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) made up 12 % of the complaints while pension-related issues made up around 4%. Issues related to the EPFO website made up 3%. Recruitment issues made up 6% while harassment at work made up 5% of the grievances.
Source: New Indian Express