. As a minimum acceptable program ,,,,a) Can all the Industry associations call out Members who are following such bad practices b)Various professional bodies eg NIPM< NHRD , ICAI etc can also list out Employers who are not following proper Labour practices c) We often mention that MSME companies do not follow proper systems and practices …most of them are vendors to large Companies . Am positive that whilst negotiating and placing orders, a check on the supplier practices is possible d) Even in Large and 'professionally ' managed companies , would be useful to audit/check if such practices are there across the Value Chain. e) Unions, can also unite for a cause and name these Defaulters

In short, lets make a difference where we can contribute ….surely, a beginning however small can be made.

You have rightly pointed out the menace of ‘Wage Theft’ existing in our country. It happens mostly in the case of unorganized sector and sometimes in the organized sector as well taking the union leaders into confidence. But the same Wage Theft also happens at the level of executives in a different form. In most organisations executives do not have any standard working hours and are sometimes threatened for sticking to their usual office hours especially in the case of private sector organisations. Executives are threatened with low PMS scores and delayed or denied promotions if they do not work beyond their office hours. They also do not get paid anything extra and also do not have any unions are associations to support them. In the pretext of saving manpower cost people are made to work longer duration. This leads to mental stress and also disturbs the family life of these employees.Except for a very few ethical employers this trend is reflected everywhere in the country.Even the employers’organisations like CII, FICCI etc. do not take up this issue of Wage Theft at all levels and try to come up with a viable solution….

I remember an employer who was not paying minimum wages asking “Can an action plan be worked out for paying minimum wages over a two year period? Pat came the reply from the consultant ” The product you sell bears the sweat and blood of your workmen, kindly remember”. Things changed since then.

Rightly said many including the enforcement authorities turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the wailing of these unfortunate ones.

More of Maruti and Winstron in the horizon to restore balance.

The term is new to me but not the practice. Today, it is happening more brazenly and impacting more levels of wage earners, even “qualified” workmen and staff. There is a concept of a minimum wage, a fair wage and a living wage. The fair and living wages are higher than the minimum wage, but what do we in a society that does not even wish to pay minimum wages but expects maximum productivity !! It is sheer exploitation and speaks of the lowering of our own ethical standards and lack of concern with exploitation. When a manager at a very senior level heads a third party factory that manufactures products of Apple but does not even bother to check whether those that work in the factory are not only paid at least minimum wages and that they are paid on time, does it not reflect the morals and ethics of that manager? When all other executives of that factory go to work every day and observe this happening and not protest, does it not reflect on the callousness and insensitivity of the executives? Are we as a race becoming so inhuman that we do not look beyond ourselves? Are we looking for crutches that are offered by legal frameworks to deprive people of what they are entitled to instead of treating them as the least that needs to be done? Maybe, we are becoming cold to the sufferings and hardships of others and hiding in our own cocoons. Sad.

Employment , Employees who are fortunate to have

Some Employment and scope for Wages are more

Concerned in securing their jobs rather than assertion

of their Legal Rights or Entitlements. This is

Unfortunately the prevailing Socio Economic System.