Labour dept gets 600 complaints in 18 months from laid-off staff

Over the last year and a half, the Maharashtra government's labour department in Pune got over 600 complaints from sacked employees disputing the grounds of their sacking. The complaints came from dismissed employees of manufacturing units, merchandising businesses and financial institutions, labour department officials said.

According to the office of the deputy commissioner, labour, 622 complaints were received from January last year to June this year. In 2011, 408 complaints were received; 214 complaints have been received in 2012 so far.

"Employees have objected to the grounds given by employers to terminate their services, such as insubordination and habitual absenteeism," Deputy Commissioner Sambhaji More said.

Agreements had been worked out in some cases, with employers compensating the sacked employee or even withdrawing the sacking. "The rest of the cases were referred to the labour court," More said. From the last year's cases, 189 have been disposed of; the remaining are under review."

Labour leader Sunil Shinde, president of the Rashtriya Mazdoor Sangh, said, "We have brought to the notice of the labour department cases of illegal termination of employment. There are also cases of companies paying less than the stipulated minimum wages, and we pursue these cases with the government."

More said the labour department had conciliated in cases where the employee had served for at least 240 days, and proceedings could be initiated under the Industrial Disputes Act. The department was not currently reviewing requests for permission from companies seeking to cut staff, he said.

"Factories or establishments that employ more than 100 people have to get permission before they retrench," he said.

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