TN: Hard time for biscuit makers

Chennai, Apr 8: The hard toil of biscuit makers, who reel under blistering sun and intolerable hot weather in pursuit of their livelihood, speaks volumes about their sufferings, yet the subject of labour rights and due wages remains miles away from them.

Spending nearly 12 hours under a blistering 45 degrees C, the 2,000-odd workers, with fragile and worn-out physique, are mute testimony to the society's nonchalance to their sufferings.

''We spend nearly 12 hours at the baking unit working under the temperature of 45 degrees C. After a day's hard work, we are given a meagre Rs 60. Till date, no government has lent ears to the woes we suffer,'' said Murugan, a worker in a biscuit unit at Mint in the city.

The comprehensive social security cover, designed by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for unorganised workers, has also failed to include them in the ambit.

''It's been long 40 years since I started working in this place. I came here when I was 10. The working condition still remain the same. Nowadays, its very hard to find a worker for these units,'' says N Sreenivasan, presently working as supervisor at a bisenit unit in the city.

''He said majority of workers at these units are migrant labourers from Vellore, Cuddalore and other districts of Tamil Nadu.

''We are not organised in any form of trade unions or associations and generally face threat of going out of work,'' he added.

AITUC All India Vice-President S S Thyagaraj said the owners exploited the workers due to tittle awareness among them on their rights.

''The income and employment protection, employment regulation and livelihood protection are primary concerns of these workers, which the Union has to seriously consider,'' he said.

He said the AITUC would depute its cadre to the units for spreading awareness on their rights.

Mr Thyagaraj pointed out that these workers needed protection of the Minimum Wages Act, the Equal Remuneration Act and the Workmen Compensation Act.

''The all-round absence of any employment regulation and social security system for these unorganised workers need a serious consideration'', he said.

Apart from bringing these workers under a single umbrella, the Union would also urge the state government to include them under the social security ambit.

''Only through collective bargaining, they can come out of their present predicament,'' he said.

UNI