ESSAY

WELFARE OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ON SITE

1. WHO ARE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS?
2. ACTS MADE IN FAVOUR OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
3. SITE VISIT DETAILS
4. COMPARISON OF VISITED SITE CONDITIONS WITH THE IDEAL SITE
CONDITIONS
5. CONCLUSION

1. WHO ARE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS?

A construction worker is someone whose job is to work on a construction site where
structures such as bridges or houses are being built. In India after agriculture the biggest
source of employment is construction sector. About 8 million workers are engaged in
construction work throughout India.

Construction workers are not millionaire or billionaire people. They generally belong to
lower caste like Schedule Caste or Schedule tribe. They are from the rural areas and
belong to poor family. People from different villages or places who think that their
family business like agriculture or wood cutting or sailing goods is not enough to give
them a better life generally turn towards construction sector to become a construction
worker. In search of better way of living and jobs in construction sector they migrate
from their villages to bigger cities where construction is being carried out on a large
scale. According to a survey conducted in 2011-2012 in India these migrant workers
make the largest proportion of migrated population.

Migrant workers are generally divided into two categories:

Intra-state migrant workers
Inter-state migrant workers
Intra-state migrant workers are those who migrate within the state in search of work in
construction sector. Inter-state migrant workers are those who shift from one state to
other state in search of work in construction sector. In our country Inter-state migration
of workers mostly takes place from the North Eastern states to Southern states where
construction sector is present on broad scale. Intra-state migration in India can be seen
in UP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP easily.
 Apart from Inter-state and Intra-state, workers are divided further into three categories:
Skilled, Unskilled and Specialized. The majority of the workers is ‘unskilled’ and helps in
Masonry work. The skilled workers are masons and have higher status in this hierarchy.
The specialized workers are the ones doing tasks such as flooring, road construction and
marble work for beautification. The majority of the workers are male, but sometimes
entire families work together. Children below the age of 18 often work on construction
sites to share the burden of the family’s work.

As said earlier 8 million workers in India belong to construction field. These 8 million
workers fall in the category of formal workers. India’s 45 million construction workers
are evidently large in numbers, mostly migrant, woefully undocumented and almost
totally ignored by the system at large. These are called as Informal workers.
Construction workers form the country’s third largest employee base and fall in the
unorganized or informal sector. And thus are generally not covered under any
Government law nor do they have any kind of job security. When we talk about legal
provisions regarding benefits or job security of workers we come across the fact that
Government of India has made certain laws, rules and regulations for the welfare of the
workers. But the question is, “Are those laws being implemented completely
everywhere?”

2. ACTS MADE IN FAVOUR OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Some of the important acts and their basic covered requirements that are made by
Indian government that falls in favor of construction workers are:
a. The Payment of Wages Act, 1936: It covers provisions for the following:
 Responsibility of contractor for payment of wages.
 Time of payment of wages- whether the 7 day of month or 10th day of that
month
 Medium of payment of wages
 Is there any kind of deduction from workers’ wages and for what reason of
the following: fine, absence from duty, damage or loss of property, service,
recovery of advances, recovery of loans, other deductions?
 Registers and records of wages.
 Claims arising out of deductions from wages or delay in payment of wages.
 Penalty for offence which is punishable with fine which shall not be less than
Rs. 1500 but which may extend up to Rs. 7500.
 Penalty for not paying of wages on a working day or in current coin.
b. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948: It covers provisions for the following:
 The amount of fixed wage rate
 Minimum rate for work time and overtime.
 Minimum rate as per locality, age and scheduled employment.
 Wage period
 Special allowances
 Fixing hour for a normal working day.
 Rates of overtime.
 Maintenance of registers and records.
 Regular inspection.
 Wages for two or more classes of work.
c. BOCW Act, 1996: It covers provisions for the following:
 Are the workers covered under the bocw act?
 Whether the workers have their identity card issued by contractor?
 What are the normal working hours?
 Rest timing?
 Wages for overtime?
 Verification of records and registers like muster roll
 Drinking water facility
 Latrine and urinal facility
 Temporary accommodation with facilities
 Crèches
 First aid boxes
 Canteen facility
 Safety committee
 Preventive measures for accidents by supervisor
 Personal protective equipment for workers
 Welfare facilities to workers
d. The Child Labor (Prohibition And Regulation) Act, 1986: It covers provisions for the
following:
 Prohibition of child labor.
 Child labor technical advisory.
 Hours and period of work (3 hours before the rest period of 1 hour)
 And not work more than 6 hours
 No child should work hours in between 7 pm to 8 am.
 No overtime work.
 Should not work in 2 establishments at a day.
  Weekly holiday on Sunday
 Notice to inspector
 Disputes as to age
 Maintenance of register
 Health and safety
 Penalty
 Appointment of inspector
e. Interstate Migrant Workmen Act 1979: According to this act migrant workers
should be registered by contractors for basic facilities. It includes provisions for the
following:
 Equal or better wages for the similar nature & duration of work applicable for
the local workmen or stipulated minimum wages under the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948 whichever is more.
 Displacement allowance (Section 14).
 Home journey allowance (Section 15) including payment of wages during the
period of journey.
 Suitable residential accommodation and medical facilities free of charge on
mandatory basis.
 Termination of employment after the contract period without any liability.
 Right to lodge compliant with the authorities within three months of any
incident, accident, etc.
f. Rights in Favor of Women Workers: About 80 percent of female workers, at the age
of 10-12 years start working in the Construction Industry. 92 percent of women—
workers are illiterate in this industry. Almost 90 percent women workers are in
temporary jobs. Following laws have been made by Indian government which should
turn in favor of women workers:
 The Right to Equal Pay ILO Convention No. 100,Equal Remuneration, 1951.
(In India)
 The Right to Equal Treatment ILO Convention No. 111, Discrimination
(Employment and Occupation) 1958 (In India)
 ILO Convention No. 142, Human Resources Development, 1975 ,Maternity
Protection, 1919
 ILO Convention No.I03, Maternity Protection, (Revised), 1952. (In India)
 The Right to Combine Work and Domestic Responsibilities, ILO Convention
No. 156, Workers with Family Responsibilities 1981.
 The Right to Paid Work ILO Convention No. 168,
  Employment Promotion and Protection, 1988, ILO Convention No. 158,
Termination of Employment, 1982.
 The Right to Safe & Healthy Work Environments free from Sexual
Harassment Resolution on Equal Opportunity and Equal Treatment for men
and Women in Employment, 1985.

3. SITE VISIT DETAILS

We went to a site of commercial building named I Address near Science City Road. There
construction project was under Ducon Consultancy whose architect was Apurva Amin.
There we have interviewed Bhura Bhai and Sushma Ben. Apart from this we have
carried general observations and talked to one of the main owners of the company
regarding facilities being given to workers, registration of workers, site conditions and
project.

4. COMPARISON OF VISITED SITE CONDITIONS WITH THE IDEAL SITE

CONDITIONS
An ideal site must cover all the laws and regulations made by the government. However
a perfect construction site is not possible to maintain when such a huge body has to
work with so many employees but to get a perfect site government or the company
undertaking the project must ensure the regular eye upon the work system and see that
all the basic amenities with proper wages, leave, washroom and drinking facilities,
safety equipment, healthy environment for women and children without any child
labor; are being provided to workers. The ideal site should cover the provisions of
gender equality and no sexual harassment . They should also see about the registration
and proper accommodation of the workers. Also the travel expenses and other
expanses of workers should be given properly.
As per the interview taken, in the site we visited about 60 people were working as
construction workers with 40 to 50 male workers and remaining are the female workers.
Bhura Bhai whom we interviewed earlier was a farmer in Dungarpur and shifted alone
here. According to him and other authorities all the labors on site were registered and
have Odhak cards. They work from 10 to 5 and sometimes do overtime according to
work. They get salary of Rs. 700 per day and are paid accordingly if do overtime. If they
take leave for any reason no deduction is carried out from their salary. Women get the
salary of Rs. 300 per day and also workers are provided with helpers to carry out work
which also get salary of Rs. 300 per day. They all have an attendance card and a register
to be filled during start and end of the work. They get recess from 1 P.M. to 2 P.M. They
make food by themselves and have temporary shelter over the site itself. They drink
water from the bore and has washroom facilities over the site. Their medical expenses
 are bare by the company but they do not get any safety equipment like safety helmet or
safety belts. There was no canteen on the site so lunch and dinner are made by the
workers themselves. They get the holidays as per the festivals and weekends. According
to Sushma Ben the surrounding is healthy for the women and children and they feel
very comfortable while working and also get the sufficient washroom facilities. There
was no child labor on the site. According to authority the contractor’s behavior is
friendly with workers and workers learn their work by themselves. Till now no accidents
and no fights happened on the site.

5. CONCLUSION
In a developing country like India where construction sector plays major role of
employment for poor people it is not sufficient that government is making laws day by
day for the welfare of the workers. It is also necessary to see that whether those laws
are being properly implanted up to a greater extent or not. Appointing an officer
additionally for this purpose by government or company undertaking the project is a
must. Apart from this government as well as companies undertaking the project must
try to give a sufficient investment towards the better living conditions of the workers so
that the major portion of our country population which is dependent of this sector will
also be able to grow and develop.

RUDRA SHARMA
PT401715