Fighting for rights of informal sector workers

Labourline has helped 788 workers so far

To augment her family’s meagre income, Preeti took up a daily-wager’s job at a utensils manufacturing unit in Sonipat, Haryana, last December. Despite repeated requests, the firm’s owner did not pay her salary for three months. Misfortune followed her as her five-year-old daughter fell from the rooftop and sustained serious injuries. Treatment for her child incurred heavy medical expenses and further plunged the family into financial woes.

Still her pleas for the payment of outstanding dues had no impact on her employer till the time India Labourline, a helpline run by a Working People’s Coalition (WPC), intervened to resolve the matter and got her the dues.

The WPC, a coalition of 150-odd provincial and local organisations of informal sector workers, had started the helpline with its headquarters in Mumbai in July last year to provide legal aid and mediation services to workers, especially the migrants. The Labourline has offices in five States, including Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, and provides free help to workers in any State.

Ms. Preeti’s husband Sunny, who works as a supervisor in a manufacturing unit in Koshambi near Ghaziabad, had stumbled upon the helpline number while searching for contacts of non-government organisations that could probably intervene in the matter of his wife’s non-payment of salary.

“I shared the details of my wife’s job and her outstanding dues and within a fortnight, she received the sum,” he said. Before Mr. Sunny called the helpline, the couple had been to Kundli police station as well, but were told that the matter pertained to the Labour Department and turned away.

However, following a call from the helpline representative to the firm’s owner, Ms. Preeti received 60% of her dues within a few minutes and the balance amount of ₹3,390, was paid within a fortnight. Mr. Sunny told this reporter they had lost all hopes of getting the money and were also not in a position to fight a long legal battle. The helpline representative was godsend.

In another case, Giteshwar Prasad, 27, worked for a Mumbai-based solar panel installation firm for three months in 2020. The owner stopped acknowledging his calls and text messages when he asked for his wages. His employer had sweet-talked Mr. Giteshwar into paying the wages of the staff working under him and also for the construction material and safety gears they used at work. He promised to reimburse all the expenses incurred by him.