SDF’s labour front ramps up focus on worker woes, serves ultimatums to investors to hire local and pay notified wages

SUBASH RAI
GANGTOK, 24 Feb: Those keeping track of the news would have noticed the frenetic resurgence in the activities of the All Sikkim Democratic Labour Front [ASDLF], the labour front of the ruling party, in the past couple of weeks. ASDLF teams, led by their vice-president, BM Ramudamu, [the SDF president, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling in the ASDLF president as well], have visited around 15 firms and enterprises, including hydel projects, pharmaceutical companies, educational institutions etc., and served ultimatums directing them to fulfill an 8-point charter of demands pertaining to the human resource management practices at these units.
According to Mr. Ramudamu, his organization was “forced” to adopt this strong approach because investors have, despite reminders, refused to comply with the Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] signed with the State Government prior to establishing their firms in Sikkim.

Most of the complaints stem from the alleged refusal of the new companies to hire local candidates and in the event that they do, not offering them appointments and remunerations commensurate to their qualifications and aptitude.
Speaking exclusively to NOW!, Mr. Ramdamu contended that even though local youth were educated, now even skilled and prepared for the required posts, these companies were not employing them.
“These companies are not even respecting recommendations [for jobs] forwarded by the State Government,” the ASDLF vice-president claimed.
“Even when they do recruit local candidates, they are invariably appointed in the W-0 grade [the lowest employment grade possible and one without many options for promotions or perks] and even that under labour contractors. On the other hand, candidates from outside Sikkim with the same skills and qualifications have been offered permanent employment,” Mr. Ramudamu claims.
He adds, “Even those employed as part of Relief & Rehabilitation commitments are provided only token appointments [in W-0 grade as has happened with NHPC in the Teesta Stage-V project] and are being paid one-third of what equally qualified and skilled manpower from outside Sikkim is being offered.”
And then there are inconsistencies in the adoption of wage-structures notified by the State Government, with Mr. Ramudamu informing that it has come to their notice that most companies are offering only the minimum per-diem [even for much higher qualified workers] fixed by the State Government.
“The Government has set a minimum wage of Rs. 130 per day for unskilled labourers and semi-skilled, skilled and highly-skilled wages are progressively higher. But we found these firms paying a uniform wage of Rs. 130 to all category of workers,” Mr. Ramudamu said.
Not only this, some of the companies have even begun operations without having signed an MoU with the State Government, he adds. This will need deeper enquiry by the State authorities, but what it achieves for such companies is that it keeps them under the radar when it comes to establishing working conditions as required by the State policies.
On this, Mr. Ramudamu said, “The oversight of not having signed an MoU should be blamed on the concerned departments which have issued NOCs to allow operations to begin.”
The ASDLF vice-president stressed that the front will now compel these companies to sign a proper MoU with the Government binding them to certain norms and conditions.
What the ASDLF teams also reportedly discovered is that many companies were shortchanging their employees on Over-Time remunerations due to them.
“We found no uniformity in the overtime wages in any of these companies and we have directed all these establishments to implement government-fixed OT rates,” he said.
On the ultimatum served to various establishments, Mr. Ramudamu said, “We have given a 02 March deadline to most of these companies to submit implementation reports to the Labour Department.”
He adds, “If these ultimatums are ignored, we are ready to even stop all work at these manufacturing units and hydel project sites.”