CHENNAI: Around 350 construction workers who have been denied two months' salary by a reputed developer staged a protest here on Tuesday. A few of them also could not avail the ration provided by the state government.
The furious workers, who are working at a site in Aishwarya Nagar in Ayanambakkam, said they were unable to send money home to their families for the last two months as they have been facing financial difficulties during the lockdown.
Thirty-three year old Bhagirathi, a carpenter from Chapra district in Bihar and a father of two children, who started working at the site from November, told The New Indian Express that his contractor has yet to pay him two months' salary.
"I have a pending salary of Rs 80,000 for the last two months. This money has been earned after working hard till midnight to ensure our children and family don't go hungry at home," he says.
The anger mounted on Monday when 25 of the workers were left off from the daily ration provided by the state to migrant labourers. "We had gone to hospital to meet one of our collegues who was recovering and hence could not provide our Aadhaar details. Our name was not there when ration was distributed on Monday," says 25-year-old Chandrabhan, another carpenter working at the site.
When Express contacted the contractor, he said he got stuck in the lockdown and made arrangements to provide them with ration. He acknowledged that two months' salaries could not be paid to the workers and it would be paid soon once they get the payment from the developer.
An official from the developer's office told Express that they have paid salaries till February to the contractor and could not pay the remaining following the lockdown. The official also said that the food and ration is being taken care of and the workers are provided Rs 100 a day as food allownace. "Yesterday they may not have got the ration as there could be a shortage. We are catering to workers at 21 sites," the official said.
Twenty-nine-year-old Gobind, a father of three and a construction worker from Katihar in Bihar, said that the workers migrate to feed their families back home. "When we can't send money back home, what is the use of our slogging here away from our families. I am not asking for lakhs as salary. All I want is Rs 22,000 a month which I was promised. They owe me Rs 44,000," he said.
Labour department officials could not be contacted but it is learnt that the department would investigate and take legal action if they find any irregularities in payment of salaries and providing food to employees.