Farm News
Carrying trollies of stubble, farmers protest at 34 places in Punjab against legal action
Eighteen farmer unions Monday arrived at the offices of deputy commissioners and sub-divisional magistrates in Punjab with trollies laden with paddy stubble demanding withdrawal of legal action, including registration of FIRs and rollback of the fine imposed on farmers, for burning crop residue in their farms. Lodging the protest at 34 places in Punjab, they also demanding a long-term solution for paddy straw.
Punjab under fire from both NGT & farmers
Startled by the satellite images that show Punjab as a giant, red hotspot of field fires, the NGT earlier in the day asked the state government why it had delayed finding a solution or taken no tough action. On Sunday evening, the state had reported 932 FIRs, 7,405 penalties worth Rs 1.67 crore, and 340 red entries in revenue records.
Delhi Pollution : Supreme Court Suggests Excluding Farmers Burning Stubble From Minimum Support Price
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 21) suggested excluding farmers burning their stubble from the purview of the minimum support price (MSP) infrastructure, as a part of a carrot-and-stick policy to disincentivise stubble burning in Punjab and other states adjacent to Delhi. It also recommended completely subsidising baling machines for poor farmers and financing their operating costs to convert stubble into a useful byproduct that could then be sold for a profit by the state government.
Livelihoods
Photo essay: Workers in the boiler factories of Ahmedabad
As boiler factories in Ahmedabad flout norms, the workers carry on with their jobs in hot, humid, and extremely unsafe conditions. Boiler work is typically carried out by seasonal migrant workers—hired on contract by petty contractors— belonging to scheduled tribes and denotified tribes. They mostly come from the border districts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. A majority are landless labourers who migrate to cities like Ahmedabad to earn a meagre but continuous income, which isn’t available at their native place.
Rajasthan: Spectre of Silicosis Continues to Loom in Bundi; Affected Workers Pushed Back to Mines in Absence of Opportunities
Bundi: People diagnosed with silicosis, a lung disease with no cure, in the Bundi district, are forced to labour in the mines for a meagre daily wage of Rs 100 due to a dearth of employment opportunities. The Welfare Board, although established on paper, offers no tangible support and a discrepancy in the relief fund leaves the workers bereft of assistance.
In the Courts
High Court strikes down Haryana law on 75% domicile reservation in private jobs
The Punjab and Haryana High Court held the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act as “unconstitutional.” It quashed the Haryana government’s law that mandated 75 per cent reservations for locals in private sector jobs having a gross monthly salary of less than Rs 30,000, bringing relief for industry players.
This job quota doesn’t work
The Punjab and Haryana high court has done well to quash a Haryana law that reserved up to 75% of private jobs, paying up to ₹30,000 a month, for local residents. However, Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Singh Chautala has said the government will move the Supreme Court after studying the judgment. The government shouldn’t challenge the order. The populist act to introduce reservation for locals in the private sector was bad in law and unfriendly to industry and business.
Pay risk allowance to malaria workers: Court
A Delhi labour court has directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to pay a risk allowance of Rs 1,000 to field workers of the C and D category posted in the malaria department. The court of Ajay Goel, presiding officer, industrial tribunal I said that only field workers are entitled to the payment and not SFWs (superior field workers) and AMIs (assistant malaria inspectors).
News from States
Madhya Pradesh: Rural Workers Get Lowest Daily Wages, Below National Average
RBI data showed that while the national average for the year ended March 2023 was Rs 345.7, male agricultural workers in rural areas in Madhya Pradesh got a daily wage of just Rs 229.2. The other state that recorded the lowest daily wages was Gujarat where male agricultural workers got a daily wage of Rs 241.9. Other poorly paid states include Uttar Pradesh where rural farm workers got an average daily wage of Rs 309.3 and Odisha Rs 285.1 in 2021-22. While in Maharashtra which is touted as an industrialised state, male farm workers got Rs 303.5 daily.
Ahead of Telangana Elections, Gig Workers' Union Demands a Rajasthan-Like Welfare Law
As unions gain prominence and political parties show willingness to address platform workers' concerns, the era of unregulated platforms appears to be ending. The upcoming Telangana elections could also decide the course of a welfare law for workers.
UP, Bihar replace Kerala as top supplier of blue-collar workforce to Gulf nations
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have begun replacing Kerala, which was a significant contributor of the blue-collar workforce, from India to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, a report said on Friday. Over the last decade, there was a notable shift in migration patterns with Kerala witnessing a 90 per cent drop in workforce going to the Middle East nations, according to a report by blue-collar worker placement platform Huntr.
Coimbatore Corporation to provide safety gear to over 1,000 conservancy workers by February 2024
Conservancy workers told The Hindu that they were provided with a box of 30 single-use gloves, but were told to wash and reuse them everyday To address the issue of conservancy workers collecting and segregating waste without basic protective gear such as gloves and masks, the Coimbatore Corporation will soon be placing an order worth ₹33,76,374 to provide 1,011 workers in the East, West and South Zones with surgical masks, latex gloves, raincoats, cut shoes, bags, caps, gum boots and jackets by February 2024.
MCD to hike minimum wages of employees
The AAP-led MCD has decided to increase the minimum wages of employees, a civic official said on Monday. Monthly minimum wages for unskilled workers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will be increased to Rs 17,234 from Rs 16,792 The wage will rise to Rs 18,993 from Rs 18,499 for semi-skilled workers and to Rs 20,903 from Rs 20,375 for skilled workers.
Travails of Fisherfolk
Sri Lanka releases 22 fishermen after Sitharaman steps in
22 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were detained by Sri Lankan authorities on charges of poaching have been released after intervention from Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The two boats seized by the Sri Lankan side were also released.
CM releases ₹161 cr to ONGC-affected fishers
Vijayawada: On World Fisheries day AP Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy released 161.86 crore towards the fourth tranche of financial assistance to the fishermen who lost their livelihood due to the laying of ONGC pipelines in Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema and Kakinada districts… An amount 69,000 each would be directly credited into the bank accounts of 23,458 affected fishermen.
IT Workers
'TCS systematically forcing more than 2,000 employees to transfer to different cities ...': IT workers' rights organisation files complaint
CHENNAI: The country’s largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is again in the news for wrong reasons. The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), an IT workers' rights organisation, has filed a formal complaint with the Ministry of Labour and Employment against TCS alleging unethical transfer practices. The company has threatened the employees that failure to comply with the transfer directions will result in disciplinary actions, it said.
IT staff forced to work 50 hours/week to meet deadlines: data
IT employees in the country work on an average work for around 45-50 hours per week, translating around 10 hours a day in the 5-day week while the standard is 40 hours a week, as a large part of them is often compelled to work longer hours to meet project deadlines, as per data from staffing firms.
Coding helps girls in small town India programme their way to better lives
A young Hathras coder hit headlines recently after landing a plum job but there are many more Muskans in the making, thanks to non-profits and competitions aimed at women. Deepa was doing her BA and had no technical background when she decided to join a residential program to learn coding in the Sarjapura campus of NavGurukul in Bengaluru. “My father, a house painter, lost his job during Covid. I had just finished Class 12 from a government school, and everyone around me was talking about all the jobs there are in tech. So, I realised that’s where I should shift to be employable,” says the 22-year-old.
Gender pay gap widens as women go up the tech ladder
New Delhi: Much like the underrepresentation of women in the technology sector, the pay gap between men and women employees in the industry widens with ascension up the corporate ladder, a legacy issue that an increasing number of companies are seeking to address. Aon’s latest estimates shared exclusively with ET showed that the unadjusted gender pay gap in the technology sector in 2023 is in the range of 28-30%, while for junior management, it is 8-10%.
Endangered Workers
Faith & perseverance — glimpses of 10-day rescue ops for 41 workers trapped inside Uttarkashi tunnel
Uttarkashi: Ten days into the operation, as many as 13 agencies are working on war footing to rescue 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara-Barkhot tunnel.
Battles Won
580 BMC sanitation workers win case for job permanency after 24 years
After a fight of 24 years, this dismal situation looks like it might finally change. On November 8, the Bombay high court upheld an industrial court’s 2021 order recognising the 580 workers as permanent.