Good response to 24-hour helpline

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 24-hour helpline of the Labour Department - 0471 155300 -   introduced in the state on August 17 had evoked positive response with quick redressal of various labour problems. However, the Malayali attitude of playing tricks to register false complaints was not an exception.The first call to the helpline was from Kottarakkara who introduced himself as a computer operator from a private firm and said that his supervisor was paying only Rs 7,500 as salary.  The call was made from a telephone booth and the `employee’ gave a mobile number also. When the officials tried the mobile number it was found that the number was of a computer operator, but strangely he had never registered a complaint.Additional Labour Commissioner V N Anil Kumar, who is in charge of the helpline, told Express that the employee said that he was satisfied with his work and salary. Someone had tried to mislead the officials against the firm and the supervisor which is a misuse of the facility introduced by the government to help the people in need.On the first day 50 complaints were registered at the helpline regarding  ‘Nookkukooli’ to labour laws, not getting minimum salary, violation of fair wages and unemployment problems. There were also enquiries regarding daily wages of labour, headload workers and rates for loading and unloading household goods.John Jacob, an NRI hailing from Muttada, was able to settle a labour dispute on the first day of introducing the new system with the intervention of Labour Minister Shibu Baby John. John Jacob, who was to leave the city for Gulf on Thursday had a dispute with the labourers regarding wages to unload certain goods to his house.The Minister intervened in the issue and directed the district labour officer to hold discussions with the complainant and the labourers. The wage dispute was settled in 30 minutes which helped the NRI to return to Gulf on the same day. Apart from the helpline number several complaints were received through e-mails in the new website of the minister. On the first day of the launch of the website minister-labour.kerala.gov.in there were 68,887 hits which had gone up to more than one lakh hits now.All complaints registered at the helpline or the website were passed on the respective officials and was intimated to them over phone. The action taken on each complaint was reported back to the Labour Department which is monitored randomly.