Subject- Points of objections to the government proposed amendments to the Building and Other Construction Workers Act and submission of genuine amendments to the Act by National Alliance for Social Security.
Dear Friends,
National Alliance for Social Security is an alliance of 6 trade unions and campaign organizations across India. The alliance represents 2170703 workers in the unorganized sector through the member organizations. The alliance endeavors for the realization of unorganized workers right to social protection and security as enshrined in International Labour Standards & United Nations. The primary strategy of the alliance is to engage with the governments at national and state levels to improve the implementation status of the Unorganized Workers Social Security Act and ensure access to unorganized workers.

The Government of India has passed two Acts for the welfare of the Construction workers in India these are “The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service Act 1996) and “The Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996”.

Though these acts have provided a formal structure in order to make Welfare schemes for the Construction workers in India but the implementation of the act is still very slow through the State Governments. In order for better implementation and provide stronger teeth to the act, we on behalf of all construction workers organizations submit the demand to do the following amendments to the act.
The Central Government is making many amendments to the acts which are not contributing towards the welfare of the Construction workers; on the other hand these amendments will increase the corruption levels. These amendments are-

1) According to the act cess is levied on all houses built for self dwelling which cost more than 10 lacs and all non residential construction works are put under the Definition of “establishment” . Under the cess act any construction activity which comes under the above definition has to pay 1% of the total cost to the state board. The money collected is used for providing relief to construction workers in case of accident, pension, loan for building their own homes, group insurance, and education assistance for children, health and maternity benefits.

Amendment proposed by the government- The government wants to remove the 10 lacs slab for residential homes and wants to give powers to the central government to decide the limit. This means that now this power lies in the hands of the central government officers.
We oppose this power going in the hands of the Central Government officers. We advocate that this power can be given to the state or central advisory committee and the state boards.
2) At present only those construction workers can get registered in the board and avail benefits who have worked at least 90 days anywhere on construction sites in the last one year. This 90 day employment certificate can be given by the employer, labour officer and trade unions. But in actual this certificate is being provided by the trade unions every year to the workers. On the other hand the number of certificates issued by the employers and the labor officers is almost negligible.
Amendment proposed by the government-The government wants to remove the criterion of presenting 90 days certificate by the worker and wants to open the registration without any certificate.
We oppose the as this will lead to the registration of persons who are not construction workers and it will be difficult for the board to do the verification of construction workers and removing these non construction workers from the beneficiary list.
3) According to article 18 the dispensation of cess money collected in every state is given to the construction workers welfare board which is a tripartite board.
Amendment proposed by the government- The proposed amendment to article 18 suggests that in states where the board has not been made , there a committee which constitutes of labor commissioner , finance secretary , planning secretary & social welfare secretary will be assumed as the board. As a result the power of dispensation of cess money will lie in the hands of these officials.
We strongly oppose this amendment as this will only lead to corruption and the cess money collected for the welfare of construction workers will be wasted.
4) Article 24 states that the expenditure of any board on administrative costs cannot be more than 5% of the total money used for providing welfare measures to construction workers.
Amendment proposed by the government- Government proposes that this percentage can be decided from time to time by the officials of the central government.
We strongly condemn this amendment as this will result in overspending on administrative costs by the board a, the corruption levels will rise and the government officials will be able to manipulate the usage of the cess money.
5) The government wants to amend article 42 which states the appointment of one director general of inspection
Amendment proposed by the government- the proposed amendment states the appoint of 10 director general of inspection instead of 1.
We strongly oppose this as presently the government is not able to monitor the work of one director general of inspection. On the other hand inspite of the order of the Supreme Court the government has not been able to appoint a fulltime secretary for the state construction workers welfare boards.
We strongly object to all the above 5 proposed amendments by the government and demand the following amendments in the act.
Proposed Amendments in Building and Other Construction Workers Act
• Mandatory registration of Construction Workers in the Construction workers welfare board. Complete ban on employing unregistered workers. Registration of workers will be the responsibility of the employer.
• Amendments should be made to establish The Building and Other Construction Workers Board as an independent body like the ESIC and PF.
• Trade Unions must be involved in the registration of construction workers in all states.
• Majority of construction Workers are migrants keeping this in mind we demand that all the welfare schemes for construction workers must have a portable delivery system like the RSBY smart card.
• A Grievance Redressal mechanism must be developed in order to solve the grievances of the Workers who are entitled to but do not receive the benefits.
• A dispute resolution system should be developed to solve the disputes between the workers and the employers.

Yours Sincerely,

Coordinator
(NASS)