With no wages, labourers left to fend for themselves

According to the trade unions in the State Transport Corporations, about 7,000 daily wage workers are engaged as bus body cleaners, ticket canvassers, loading and unloading workers and sanitary workers across the 350 depots of the transport corporations in the state.

“These workers are not paid monthly wages but would be paid every day as per their work. With the buses not plying, they are jobless and lost their livelihood.

All the trade unions jointly appealed to the Chief Minister, Transport Minister and managing directors of the transport corporation to pay Rs 5,000 each to the daily wage labourers but it was not fulfilled,” said K Arumugha Nainar, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Transport Workers Federation. He said that his union has taken initiative to collect funds from the employees to help the casual labourers who are jobless.

The casual labourers engaged by the contractors at North Chennai Thermal Power Station were not paid their full wages despite the direction of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco). Two private contractors in the NCTPS has deducted the wages of the labourers who could not turn up to the work due to the lockdown, said Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees office bearers.

Tangedco has issued a circular directing all the chief engineers of the regions, stations and projects to ensure that wages are paid to the workers by the respective contractors/subcontractors without any deductions at their workplaces, including for the period when their establishments were under closure during the lockdown.

S Kannan, deputy general secretary of CITU said that most of the private companies have paid full month salary for the workers, deducting only some allowances.

“Since the lockdown was only for a week in March, all the companies have paid the salary. We don’t know what will be the situation for April month when the companies will remain shut for two weeks. If the curfew was extended the production will be impacted further. Only then the government intervention will be necessary to ensure payment of the salaries to the workers,” he said, adding that the small-scale units are struggling to pay wages.