Rail Coach Care Centre labours claim unpaid wages of Rs 84.61 lakhs

Central Chronicle News
Bhilai, Oct 10: The labourers of Rail Coach Care Centre, Durg have filed a claim of unpaid wages to the tune of Rs 84.61 lakhs before the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), Raipur. These labourers worked for a contractor Dynamic Enterprises. The railway authorities have also confirmed that the labourers are entitled to get this amount.
Aam Aadmi Party District President Meharban Singh informed that they have been struggling for the last six years to protect the interests of the workers. The contract company of Durg Rail Coach Care Center had exploited the labourers and made them deprived of the wages to the tune of Rs 1.10 crore through illegal deductions. In the recent development, Mehrban Singh had filed a case at CLC (C), Raipur claiming the wages of Rs 84,61,090 from the contractor and the principal employer under the Payment of Wages Act
AAP had earlier won a claim of Rs 26,23,776 against the same company. The contract company was involved in on-board house-keeping service at Durg Railway Coach Care Center. The company provided sanitation services to the passengers in the moving trains like Jumutavi Express that origins from Durg and returns back in four days. The contract company used to pay the wages of only 3 days instead of 4 days to the labourers.
In this way the company did not pay the wages to workers which summed upto Rs 84.60 lakh for the period of February 2019 to March 2020. The railway authorities have also confirmed that the labourers are entitled to get this amount. The contract firm moved a step ahead in exploiting the labourers and even fired the workers those who raised voice for full wages.
In the past, the Central Labour Commissioner had directed the contract company to make a payment of Rs 26.23 lakhs in another claim case but the company has not made the payment yet. AAP has informed the Labour Commissioner about the non-compliance of the order after which the CLC (C) had written a letter to the District Collector for ensuring compliance of the order.
The labourers were expecting that the company would again start working after the lockdown but the Railway Authorities have terminated its contract as the company violated the labor laws. Deepak, Kaushal Puraina, Om Prakash, Chandan Mandal, Jitendra Netam, Ashok Kumar, Suraj Yadav, Tarun, Amar Das, Sumit, Dhruv Kumar, Ranjit and other labourers were present.