THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has insisted on the registration of agents who bring guest workers to the state. Labour Minister V Sivankutty has directed the labour department to begin the process of issuing licences to contractors and conducting registration of owners of the institutions, where more than five workers brought by agents or contractors are employed.
This will be in accordance with the the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, The minister was inaugurating ‘Guest App’, the mobile application developed by the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Fund Board for online registration of guest workers. Sivankutty also distributed ID-cards to guest workers on the occasion.
Though the government launched the Kerala Migrant Workers Welfare Scheme in 2010, membership registration under it is very low. Only 58,888 guest workers have registered as members due to reluctance to fill the forms and provide photographs. It is in this context that the app has been released to make the registration process hassle-free.
The district executive officers of the welfare fund board and labour department officials plan to visit work sites so that the photographs of migrant workers can be taken and the registration carried out through the mobile app.
According to a note from the labour minsters’ office, the app has the facility to send the soft copy of the identity card to the WhatsApp number of the guest worker. The minster said the labour department will take special efforts to enrol all eligible migrant workers under the scheme.