No wage for 47 workers stuck in Cameroon, Jharkhand lodges FIRs against Mumbai firm, brokers

Ranchi: The Jharkhand government on Thursday said it has lodged FIRs against a Mumbai-based firm and some middlemen for alleged non-payment of wages to 47 workers from the state who were stranded in Cameroon in Central Africa.

The labour commissioner filed the FIRs at Hazaribag, Bokaro and Giridih against middlemen and employers following a direction from Chief Minister Hemant Soren who had received complaints that those workers did not receive their wages for three months.

According to a statement from the Chief Minister's Secretariat, after the government took action, the process to make payment of wages started.

The statement alleged that the employers and middlemen sent these workers to Cameroon without registering them under the Inter-State Migrant Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, and without obtaining the required license.

The workers drew the attention of the CM to non-payment of their wages for three months following which the State Migrant Control Room contacted the workers and the employers.

The statement said that the employers after intervention claimed that workers were paid USD100 per month and assured the government to clear the remaining wages soon.

The state government has sought the contract and wage details of the workers, besides other documents.

Efforts are being made to ensure safe return of workers and the Ministry of External Affairs has been informed about it, the statement said.