The Gujarat Labour Department issued a notice to a private ceramic tiles manufacturer after labourers from Jharkhand complained to the authorities in their home district about non-payment of wages, said people familiar with the matter on Saturday. The development comes after at least 13 labourers returned to Jharkhand’s Tatanagar on Friday. The labourers were hired by the Morbi-based firm Agilis Vitrified Pvt Ltd located in Rangpar village, through a contractor from Odisha and had started working from August 30. The 13 labourers from Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district, who alleged they were harassed at the workplace and prevented from returning home by the contractor, had complained to their parents, who subsequently reported the matter to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Kunal Sarangi. Sarangi posted about the matter on X tagging Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren alleging that the contractor Gopal Ghosh had “misleaded them”. Following Sarangi’s post, the CM directed the Labour Department and the East Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner to look into the matter. Later, the Labour Department and the East Singhbhum district administration contacted the migrant workers. “The migrant workers reached Tatanagar railway station by train from Gujarat on Friday morning and travelled to their native place by bus. We coordinated with the Morbi district administration to ensure that the dues of the 13 workers, around Rs 68,000, were paid to them,” Migrant Control Cell team leader Shikha Lakra had told news agency PTI. The cell operates under the Jharkhand government’s Labour Department. One of the labourers, Shivanad Singh Mihir Singh (26), from Jharkhand, told The Indian Express, “We were beaten up by the contractor Gopal Ghosh’s brother Nepal and one of his relatives Banka. We were forced to work for 12 hours with a 45-minute recess for lunch in the afternoon. The work was hard… we had to lift heavy tiles and pack them into boxes. We have not done such work before, and it was unbearable. We wanted to take a break from the job, but we were threatened by the contractor’s people, and forced to work. We felt helpless. On September 18, I called my father and informed him about our situation in Gujarat.” “My father talked to one of our relatives over there who is a political leader, and later the information reached the JMM leader Kunal Sarangi…because of him the Labour Department took action,” he said. “On September 30, the Morbi police reached the factory and inquired about our issues. We told them that we wanted to return home. The police spoke with the firm owner, who had been withholding our salaries. With the help of the police, we were able to leave the factory and were also paid our salaries. We reached Ahmedabad by bus, but missed the train. On October 1, we boarded the Shalimar Express train from Surat and reached Jharkhand. We are grateful to the Morbi district police for helping us,” Singh added. “We were told that we would get Rs 470 per day, but the contractor later informed us that we would get only Rs 430 per day,” Singh added. One of the partners of the Agilis Vitrified Pvt ltd, Vipul Rajpara said, “These labourers started working from August 30, under contractor Gopal Ghosh. When police came to our factory, among the 13 labourers (including a female labourer), five were on duty while the remaining were in their rooms. It was in the presence of the police that we came to know from the labourers that they don’t want to work here.” He added, “The labourers told us that they were beaten up, harassed and forced by the contractor’s people to work. Gopal Ghosh is out of the town. We will also talk to him once he returns.” Assistant Labour Commissioner, Morbi, J R Jadeja told The Indian Express: “We spoke to some of the labourers working in the factory and found that there was an issue with a labour contractor. As the contractor had left for his hometown, the in-charge labour contractor and his aide badly treated these workers. The 13 labourers were demanding one month’s pay from the factory owner, to which he told them that it would be given to the labour contractor. We have issued a notice to the factory and are waiting for their explanation.” Morbi taluka rural police station Assistant Sub Inspector Feroz Sumra said, “We had received a call from Jharkhand Labour Department about the condition of the 13 tribal labourers in Morbi, following which we visited the factory. The labourers told us they don’t want to work and want to return home once they receive their salary. We instructed the factory owner to settle their dues. We have also taken statements from all the labourers, and they have told us that they don’t have any issues with the factory owner.”
