Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SD)

New Delhi, Apr 14: The Ministry of Labour and Employment, in a bid to address the grievances of migrant labourers related to layoffs and wage cuts during the lockdown has set up 20 control rooms across the country.

The control rooms will be working under officer of the Chief Labour Commissioner and will be managed by the labour enforcement officers, assistant labour commissioners, regional labour commissioners, and deputy chief labour commissioners. The control rooms will be monitored daily by the Chief Labour Commissioner.

The facility will tirelessly work in coordination with the state governments towards addressing and mitigating the issues of the migrant workers. It will mainly focus on wage-related issues of the migrants employed at the central sphere.

A statement released on Tuesday said, "All the concerned officers have been advised to adopt a humane approach to assist the aggrieved workmen to the maximum possible extent and ensure delivery of timely relief to the needy ones."

The decision of setting up the facility came after reports that suggested sacking of employees, non-payment of salaries, wage cuts in different sectors came to the limelight.

Last month the ministry had issued an advisory warning against the sacking of employees or cutting down of wages following the lockdown. It also said that employees wages should not be cut if they were unable to report to work due to the lockdown.

CITU general secretary Tapan Sen had written a letter addressed to the labour minister Santosh Garwar last week concerning the sacking or forced resignation of 469 employees in eight ITs and ITES companies in Bengaluru besides other issues which also included the slashing down of salaries of many employees.

Currently, based on the estimates it is feared that the lockdown might result in job loss of nearly 10-12 million in various sectors such as travel, tourism, hospitality and so on. Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector would have the possibility to revive and employees can get back to work once the lockdown is lifted.

Four officers have been given in charge in Bengaluru, deputy labour commissioner Ganpati Bhatt (dyclcbangalore@nic.in, 09845617274); regional labour commissioner K A Sebastian (rlcbengluru@gmail.com, 09443704669); assistant labour commissioner Sandeep V (sandeep.v@gov.in, 09611135878) and labour enforcement officer Durgaprasad (leodurgaprasad@gmail.com, 07829673393).