Labour dept announces relief
SHILLONG: In the wake of coronavirus threat, the state government has decided to pay Rs 1000 per worker per week to mitigate the distress faced by the building and other construction labourers who are registered with the Labour Commissioner.
The order issued on Monday by DP Wahlang, the Principal Secretary, Labour Department, said that the relief is for the wages foregone on account of the shutdown on commercial operations and business establishments in the state.
In another related order, Wahlang said in this challenging situation, the employers and owners of public/private establishments should ensure that services of employees are not to be terminated or they are forced to go on leave without wages or salaries.
“If any worker takes leave, he should be deemed to be on duty without any
consequential deduction in wages for this period. If the place of employment is to be made ‘non-operational’ due to COVID-19, the employees of such units will be deemed to be on duty. No action should be taken by the employer which could weaken the financial condition of the employee and deepen the crisis further”, the order said.
Earlier, to questions raised by media persons, Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Labour, Prestone Tynsong said that as far as workers under organised sector are concerned, the government has no problem in identifying them but the government is not able to reach out to the unorganised sector.
Plight of daily wage earners
Concerns have been raised by many daily wage earners who survive on daily wage labour.
As the daily wage earners are suffering the most, the citizens, while appreciating the move of the government, maintained that the government should do something for the daily wage earners as well.
As the city opened with restrictions after two days on Monday, hundreds of people thronged Iewduh for buying essential commodities.
The state government has adopted one day open and closure for two days strategy to counter the spread of coronavirus.
The markets in the state were partially opened and there was mixed reaction while interacting with the shopkeepers.
For a few like the grocery shop and bakery shop owners, the sales were down as they did not allow people to come in groups as per the government advisories.
E. Rynjah, who has a bakery in Motphran area, said there were no customers since there was no public transportation available in the city and only a few local vehicles were plying.
Another person identified as B. Mazumdar, who was shopping in Iewduh, said that the government is forced to put the restrictions and everybody should cooperate.
A lady while admitting that she was having problem in transporting her goods from Iewduh, however, said that if the government wants to impose restriction, it should impose it with full force.
Another person, however, lamented that their livelihood is getting affected and the government should see that the livelihood of the poor is not affected while imposing restrictions.
Earlier, in several areas of the city, people had opened up shops but later police came and asked them to close down the shops.
Only shops dealing with essential commodities including pharmacies were allowed to open.
However, later in the evening, the shopkeepers were allowed to open the shops.