Commonwealth Games: 4 member committee to check labour law violations

The Delhi High Court appointed a four-member committee to check the violations of labour laws at Commonwealth Games project sites.

A bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice Rajive Sahay Endlaw appointed Labour Commissioner and the Labour Secretary of the Delhi government, Mr A K Singh and R D Srivastava, former Indian Ambassador to the US Arundhati Ghosh and special rapporteur of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Lakshmidhar Mishra as members of the committee.

The High Court had yesterday sought a response from the Centre for its alleged failure to provide all benefits under labour laws to workers engaged in construction work for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

The directions were passed on a petition filed by a Rights group, which alleged that neither the Government nor the private contractors involved in the mega project have taken note of the working conditions of the 4,15,000 labourers working at the construction sites.

The petitioner contended that there was rampant violation of labour laws as the workers were not being paid even the minimum wages.

In many cases, the wages were irregularly paid with considerable delay and with contractor’s often withholding part of the wages, it said.

The rights group alleged that there have been deaths of several workers at the work site which have not been recorded and the safety equipment were often not made available to workers, the Rights group alleged.

The Bench today directed that the four member committee headed by the labour commissioner will convene its first meeting on Monday and after verifying the allegations, report back to the Court on March 17.