MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday sought a report from Kanniyakumari Collector in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed to ensure minimum wages for sanitary workers in 51 town panchayats in Kanniyakumari district.
The litigant, Brusho Kingsley Solomon Dhas, alleged that though the minimum wages for cleanliness workers is fixed at `615 per day, the sanitary workers who are engaged by the Kanniyakumari town panchayats through private contractors, are not paid even the said amount as a certain portion of it is deducted towards ESI and EPF. Also, some of the contractors do not provide safety gears to the workers since the officials make the contractors bear the cost, he claimed.
A Bench comprising justices PN Prakash and R Hemalatha had earlier sought the presence of Madurai Deputy Commissioner of Labour to assist the court in the case. When the case was heard again on Thursday, the Joint Commissioner of Labour was present before the court in DC’s stead and answered the questions put forth by the judges. The judges then directed the Kanniyakumari Collector to file a report on the matter and adjourned the case by two weeks.