Journalism of Courage
Factories have put the state government on notice for production losses because of a law making it mandatory for them to hire workers from outside the factory for manual labour through the Mathadi Workers Board. They say the Maharashtra Mathadi,Hamal and other Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act,1969 is no longer feasible and they should be allowed to employ manual labourers at factory sites on their own. The Maharatha Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has asked the labour ministry to exempt factories from the Act.
Director general of MCCIA,Anant Sardeshmukh,said,”There is difficulty in operationalisation of the Act as workers for manual labour have to be hired through Mathadi unions and Mathadi boards. It affects production and factories at times have to hire manual labourers unnecessarily. Industries have to employ additional workforce though there are employees within the factory to do manual works.”
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are increasingly stressing automation and in the wake of this,acts like the Mathadi Act have become outdated.”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.”
