THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN]
(a) From time to time, the Indian Embassies in Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia and Oman receive complaints through e-mail/social media or by directly lodging complaints in the Embassy’s Labour wings. The grievances raised by on Indian workers include non-payment or delay in payment of their monthly wages, violating provisions of the contract, dishonoring terms related to working conditions/salary harassment at the hands of sponsors, confiscation of passports, non-payment of end of service benefits etc.
(b) The country-wise details of number of unresolved labour disputes in the last 2 years are as below:-
<pre>
S.No.
Name of country
Complaint pending
1.
Kuwait
2019-1576
2020-1602
2.
Saudi Arabia, Riyadh
2019-746
2020-780
3.
Saudi Arabia, Jeddah
2019-780
2020-312
4.
Oman
2019-306
2020-435
5.
Qatar
2019-59
2020-392
6.
Bahrain
Total- 100
</pre>
The main reason for pendency regarding unresolved grievances is that the worker had travelled without proper employment contracts, returned without waiting for settlement or deportation due to illegal stay during the period of complaint.
(c) & (d) On receipt of complaints from the emigrants, the same are addressed immediately by the Indian Missions by taking them up with the concerned local government authorities for resolution. Complaints pertaining to labour related issues are taken up by the Indian Missions with the concerned foreign employer/Labour Department officials in that country for prompt redressal. The Government has taken several steps to strengthen grievance redressal mechanism and other measures to ensure speedy resolution of these labour disputes in various countries of the world. These include:
(i) The on-line MADAD portal enables the emigrant workers and their family members to register their consular grievances on-line and track their redressal.
(ii) Grievances related to Overseas Employment in notified Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries can also be lodged directly by emigrants/relatives or through the Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra (PBSK) on e-Migrate portal, relating to employment. These grievances are settled by respective jurisdictional Protectors of Emigrants (PoEs) as per laid down procedures.
(iii) Indian Missions conduct Open Houses on a regular basis where workers can speak on their working conditions and seek redressal of their grievances.
(iv) A multi-lingual 24X7 Helpline of Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra (PBSK) in New Delhi provides information, guidance and grievance redressal on all issues and problems pertaining to overseas employment of Indian nationals.
(v) Abroad Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendras (PBSK) have been set up at Dubai (UAE), Riyadh, Jeddah (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), to provide guidance and counseling on all matters pertaining to overseas Indian workers. Missions have also established 24x7 Helplines and Toll Free Helplines for the benefit of Indian workers to seek help.
(vi) Kshetriya Pravasi Sahayata Kendras (KPSK) have been setup in Kochi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Lucknow and Delhi to assist emigrants or their relatives to redress their problems/complaints regarding overseas employment.
(vii) Grievances brought to the notice of the Ministry and the Missions through social media, including twitter, are promptly addressed.
(viii) The Missions utilise the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to provide assistance to overseas Indian nationals in times of distress. The guidelines of the Indian community welfare fund have been revised to expand the scope of welfare measures and to cover three key areas, namely, assisting overseas Indian nationals in distress situations, community welfare activities and improvement in consular services.
(ix) Labour and Manpower Cooperation MoUs/Agreements are in place with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that provide the institutional framework to comprehensively discuss and review labour related issues. In accordance with the Labour and Manpower Cooperation/Agreement, Joint Working Group (JWG) meetings are held on regular basis to discuss various labour related issues.
(e) Question does not arise.
***
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