Supreme Court Reprimands Centre For Not Implementing Law For Welfare Of Construction Workers

The Supreme Court has pulled up the central government for not implementing the law meant for the welfare of construction workers, questioning why more than Rs 37000 crore collected for the workers has not reached them.

The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996 was passed to regulate the employment and conditions of service of building and other construction workers as well as to provide for their safety, health and welfare measures.

Under this Act, welfare boards—called the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Boards—were set up.

The funds for these welfare boards were to come from a cess levied on the cost of construction incurred by the employers — real estate firms employing the construction workers.

Therefore, the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996 was passed for the levy and collection of this cess with a view to augmenting the resources of the welfare boards.

In 2006, a public interest litigation was filed by NGO National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour, alleging that the two Acts were being violated.

The NGO stated that the statutory cess levied on the real estate firms was not being used for the construction workers’ welfare because there was no mechanism to identify the beneficiaries to extend the benefits.

More than Rs 37000 crore has been collected as statutory cess under the 1996 Acts. Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had submitted an affidavit to the court, stating that these funds were being spent to buy laptops and washing machines.

“It is a completely helpless situation,” said the bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta on 17 January to Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh, who is representing the government.

“It is crystal clear, very evident that the government is not serious. What is happening at the ground is that you collect money but do not give it to those for whom it has been collected.”

The bench said it was clear that in this way the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996 could not be implemented at all.

“Why can't you be fair, tell us. You file an affidavit that orders passed by the Supreme Court in this matter are meaningless and they are thrown in the dustbin, so do not pass any orders now,” said an angry Justice Lokur.

The ASG informed the judges about a recent meeting of the monitoring committee consisting of labour secretaries of all states and union territories.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner NGO, said the recent meeting to discuss these issues was over in less than two hours and nothing substantial was done.

Referring to the prayer in the petition, the bench said, “From the meeting and the minutes, it is clear that the Act cannot be implemented.”

The ASG said the implementation of the Act had to be centralised since the states had their own differing views.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had stressed the need for involving civil society groups and asked the Centre to take assistance from NGOs concerned with the welfare of construction workers.

The secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment had informed the court that a national portal for the construction workers’ welfare was being set up, and it could be used by NGOs to contribute.