In little over a month after industries were allowed to start, a large contract workforce is now staring at a bleak future. Industry sources estimate that at least 70% of about 6 lakh contract workers across private industries do not have employment currently as industries with a stunted demand do not have enough work to hire contract workers.
Considered as a “uncovered flexible workforce”, those working on contract are believed to constitute about 60% of the total nearly one million blue collared jobs in industries across industrial areas in and around Bengaluru. Unfortunately, multiple sources in industries and trade unions confirmed, there is no accurate data on contract workers as they are not organised. First to be affected in any industrial crisis, contract workers also have limited legal cover to protect their employment.
“Industries have not received orders yet. In fact, about 30% of industries have not even started. Those that have started have received about 10% to 30% orders. These works have been taken up mostly by permanent workers and there are not enough orders to provide employment for those on contract,” confirmed president of Karnataka Industries Association B.C. Prabhakar. “Most of the contract workers are migrants, who have returned home. Many are also hesitant to return,” he added.
What may be the worrying factor, according to him, is that the industries are expecting a “little improvement” in demand over the next six months while return to the pre-lockdown production levels may take at least two years.
With the huge labour problem unfolding in the industry, CITU general secretary Meenakshi Sundaram said that contract labour losing jobs were not restricted to private sector alone as a number of such workers in big public sector undertakings in the city have also not been called for work nor have they been paid full salary. He also pointed out that industries had been appointing apprentices under the National Employability Enhancement Mission to extract cheap labour. “This section has also been affected.”
Part of the problem is that industries, to keep their “workforce flexible”, hired more workers on contract than permanent workers, violating the provisions of The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, which defines jobs that are not permanent in nature to be filled by contract workers. “Today, most contract workers are doing permanent jobs and are paid minimum wages, which is not even half of what a permanent employee earns,” AITUC general secretary D.A. Vijaybhaskar pointed out. The Labour Department mostly turned a blind eye towards these violations, he added. Enquiries revealed that if their minimum wages are between ₹14,000 and ₹16,000 a month, a permanent employee in the same category of work would earn more than ₹30,000. Both industries and trade union leaders acknowledge that the ratio of contract workers over permanent workers in most workplaces exceeds 50%.
