Staff shortage ails Labour Dept

Sameer Singh

Bathinda, April 3

The daily functioning of the Labour Department is getting adversely affected due to the additional charge given to the Assistant Labour Commissioners (ALCs). In some cases, the ALCs look after around four to five districts. Due to the staff shortage, hundreds of complaints are lying pending.

Sources said the ALC posted in Ferozepur has additional charge of Bathinda, Pathankot, Mansa and Gurdaspur districts. Similarly, the ALC posted in Moga has additional charge of Faridkot and Muktsar districts, besides the officer needs to take care of some work from Ludhiana district as well.

Rationalising work

The newly formed government has made announcement related to fresh appointments in different departments. We are hopeful of getting more staff. We will also try to rationalise working of the Labour Department to reduce workload. —Sumeet Jarangal, Labour Commissioner

Complaints, including pendency or partly payment of gratuity, non-payment of salaries, minimum wages, compensation for accident at workplace and retrenchment or illegal termination among others were not getting addressed in a timely manner.

Sources said situation was no different in other districts as the ALCs had to move from one district to another throughout the week. Apart from handling core work, the ALCs need to take care of the court cases as well.

Other than employees from government and private sector, contractors also visit these offices to procure licences related to different projects.

ALC Suneel Kumar, who is posted in Ferozepur, said, “As I went to Chandigarh for a court related work, I could not visit Bathinda office, which is often scheduled for Monday. The situation is somewhat similar in all the districts.”

Another ALC on condition of anonymity said, “A lot of our time gets wasted in travelling. We have to commute from one corner of the state on a particular day to the other corner very next day.”