NHRC notice to Centre over ‘anti-labour practices’ at warehouse in Haryana

The National Human Right Commission on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre over reports that one of the warehouses of a multinational company in Haryana’s Manesar is asking its employees to take a pledge that they would not take toilet or water breaks until they finished unloading packages from six trucks, each measuring 24 feet long, after their team’s 30-minute tea break had ended. As per the reports, one of the workers, who works 10 hours a day for five days a week and earns ₹10,088 per month, stated that even if they work continuously without breaks, including the 30-minute lunch and tea breaks, they cannot unload more than four trucks per day. A woman worker also claimed that she keeps standing for nine hours daily and is required to evaluate 60 small products or 40 medium-sized products per hour during duty. Apart from ensuring proper payment of minimum wages to the workers, government schemes have been introduced to provide social security for the labourers, including a safe working environment, safety gear in hazardous working conditions, medical insurance and free annual health check-ups of the workers by the employers.