March 4, Mohali- Nirman Mazdoor Union (IITUC) Punjab today held a state level dharna in front of Punjab Labor Commissioner's Office in Mohali regarding the demands of construction workers. Addressing the dharna, IITUC Punjab President Kulwinder Singh Waraich, State Secretary Raj Singh Malout, Avtar Singh Tari and Juginderpal Gurdaspur said that the Modi government at the Center has first abolished the pro-labor labor laws and implemented four anti-labor and pro-corporate labor codes in their place.
Which the Modi government is going to implement across the country in April this year. With the implementation of these four labor codes, all the welfare schemes of the workers associated with Building and Other Construction (BOC) will be stopped. He said that the matter of labor laws is a matter of concurrent list. Therefore, the Punjab government should bring a resolution in the Punjab Assembly against these four labor codes and repeal them.
These labor codes are a deadly attack on the fundamental rights of the workers. Demanding recruitment of adequate staff in the Labour Department and BOC, he said that many cases of labourers are pending due to shortage of staff. He demanded that two union representatives be appointed in the BOC Board, the Labour Department should start offline work along with online work, minimum wage should be implemented in Punjab and increased according to inflation, union registration should be done within 30 days, shelter homes should be built for migrant labourers, compensation on death of construction worker should be increased to Rs 5 lakh.
He said that at present many offices of the Labour Department in Punjab have become a den of corruption. Where the work of labourers is not being done properly and according to the rules. Labourers have to make rounds to get their work done. Hurdles are being created in the registration of labourers. The money of their welfare schemes is not being deposited in their accounts. Whereas the BOC Board of the Labour Department has deposited about Rs 1400 crore for the welfare of labourers.
Which according to the law cannot be used anywhere other than the welfare of labourers. The Labour Department is sitting on this welfare fund of the labourers. This gathering was also addressed by Ramesh Nurpur Bedi, Hardeep Panesar Nawanshahr, Jagseer Muktsar, Balwinder Singh Chamkaur Sahib, Democratic Employees Front leader Malagar Singh, Avtar Singh Fazilka, Harbhajan Singh Mansa, Hari Singh Ludhiana, Kulwant Singh Tarsem Jattpur and Dilip Fazilka, Kulwant Singh Moga, Daljit Singh Bathinda, Davinder Kumar Jalalabad, Bhajan Lal Fazilka, Sukhdev Singh Gurdaspur, Vijay Pathankot.
Later after the demonstration, a memorandum was handed over to the officials of the Labor Department in the name of Labor Minister Punjab. The officials fixed a meeting with the Principal Secretary of the Union on March 18.