e-labour licence work gets contractors’ goat

NONGSTOIN, April 21: The Labour department in West Khasi Hills is under fire from some contractors, who are sore over the novel system of registering, renewing and upgrading the labour licence online.
These contractors and suppliers have been shuttling from one office to another to renew their documents, but the papers have not been processed for almost a month due to the reportedly incomplete setting of the software by the department.
The contractors approached the Labour Office at Nongstoin seeking permission to do the paper work offline.
However, the officer refused to entertain their appeal since an order is in effect stating that the works need to be done online.
“We all knew that applying online will be faster than offline mode but for a month now the system to bring a change in the department is not working and is shut, which is making the contractors angry as they are made to wait for 2-3 months just to apply for a labour license or upgrade,” K Syiemlieh, one of the contractors, said.
The contractors have threatened to close down the office if no action will be taken within two to three days. “If the department dealing with labour activities cannot provide the service as expected, it is better to consider that no more labour licence is required to conduct contract activities,” the contractors say.