The lockdown has impacted all kinds of workers, with those working in the informal sector the most adversely affected. Crores of casual and migrant labourers have lost their source of livelihood as a result of the lockdown. The exodus, which saw migrant labourers walk hundreds of kilometres to reach home, has exposed the stark inequalities in the current workforce. With no secure source of livelihood, many are struggling to feed their families.
Centre for Social Justice has been in contact with around 15,000* labourers since the beginning of the lockdown. Over the past few months, we have worked closely with district administrations to facilitate food, shelter and travel entitlements of migrant labourers. As a result of this engagement, it has come to our attention that many labourers have not been paid pending wages since months due to suppressed economic activity as a result of the lockdown.
CSJ took an initiative to facilitate the pending wages of migrant workers (worth months) as a result of the lockdown. Through the Social Compact, we are trying to achieve two important outcomes; firstly, ensuring wages that enable living life of dignity for informal workers and secondly, enabling access to entitlements.
As a first step, we wrote to all the DLSAs in the country (wherever we had labour contacts) asking them to identify labourers in their district who are facing challenges in claiming their entitlements and set up a mechanism to facilitate pending wages as well as other entitlements. To kickstart this process, we also sent a list of labourers (with contact details) who had pending wages in some Districts.
We further wrote to the four concerned SLSAs (where we had labour contacts) asking them to take action on this matter as the DLSAs didn’t respond. At this stage, it was brought to our notice by labourers from Orissa that their employer received instructions to settle the matter of pending wages. The employer agreed to pay the pending wages provided the labourers travel to Gujarat to receive it. So, we wrote again to the SLSA, requesting them to facilitate this online/remotely – but we did not receive any response.
We then wrote to the NLSA to identify such beneficiaries in all states, facilitate pending wages, set up legal aid camps and mechanisms to provide entitlements to migrant labours affected by the lockdown. This led to NLSA contacting the four respective SLSAs and asked them to take appropriate action on this. Shortly after, out of the four SLSAs, Jharkhand SLSA wrote to three of their DLSAs (also areas of our intervention) asking them to take action on the same. We also came to know through one of the labourers that the Orissa SLSA has been facilitating their pending wages although the amount is yet to reach them.
Locating the role of the SLSAs in facilitating pending wages
According to NALSA’s Disaster scheme, SLSAs are responsible for coordinating with State Disaster Management Committees and District Legal Services Authorities to facilitate victims’ entitlements under various state schemes/announcements. With the announcement of a notified disaster on 14th March 2020, the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act 2005 immediately came into effect. As per the Disaster Scheme, it, therefore, becomes the responsibility of the SLSAs to ensure that migrant workers affected by the lockdown receive their entitlements of regular wages.
Similarly, the Unorganised Sector Scheme aims to “institutionalise essential legal services to all unorganised workers”. In order to do so, it mandates the SLSAs to constitute a special cell to facilitate workers’ entitlements under various laws and coordinate with labour departments to provide benefits to workers. The scheme specifically mandates SLSAs (and as an extension DLSAs) to provide legal aid and assistance to unorganised workers and ensure the availability of trained PLVs and lawyers for this purpose.
Since payment of wages is both a statutory right under section 3 of the Payment of Wages Act 1936 and section 13 of Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment And Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 and a fundamental right under Article 21 and 23 of the Constitution (People’s Union For Democratic Rights And Others v Union of India AIR 1982 SC 1473), legal aid here naturally covers assistance in facilitation of pending wages.
Another critical instrument in defining the duties of the SLSAs in this context is the NALSA Legal Services Module. This module mandates NALSA, in coordination with SLSAs and DLSAs to set up delivery based Legal Service Camps not only to spread awareness but to identify groups needing legal assistance, directly facilitate their entitlements and follow up on the entire process. According to paragraphs 4.3 and 4.10 of the Module, direct assistance under labour laws and minimising impact of the disaster on victims falls squarely within the ambit of the Legal Services Camps.
Most crucially, the Module intends to give force to section 4(e) of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 which mandates the National Legal Services Authority (and by extension SLSAs) to hold legal aid camps in labour colonies (amongst other places) and to encourage settlement of disputes, such as non-payment of wages, through Lok Adalats. Further, all legal services institutions are expected to do so in coordination with other governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations, universities/law students and other bodies engaged in the work of promoting the cause of legal services to the poor.