Factories want ‘outdated’ Mathadi Act out

“The purpose of the Act is to protect Mathadi (those who carry loads on their heads) workers. But factories can get manual jobs like loading and unloading done by own workers,who are offered enough protection. The factories’ own staff is covered under the minimum wages act,provident fund act,” he said.

Vice-President,Legal,Cummins,Dinesh Castellino,said,”Factories are increasingly stressing automation and in the wake of this,acts like the Mathadi Act have become outdated.”

MCCIA treasurer,Deepak Karindkar,said factories were facing difficulty in identifying list of works under the manual category. “There is a schedule of works identified by the Act as manual works,like packaging,wrapping and stitching. But as new technologies emerge,it is difficult to identify works to be listed as manual. In order to get workers from the Mathadi board,industries would have to replace existing staff employed on factory jobs.”

Deputy Commissioner,Labour,T G Cholke,said,”We can’t exclude factories on our own and the Act needs to be amended by the state legislature and for that the initiative has to be taken at the highest level in the government.”