More than 10 days after workers at hot-rolling steel plants in Wazirpur went on strike demanding wages and benefits as per law, officials from the Labour Department visited the plants in the area to carry out an inspection to check if they are complyingwith labour laws and safety norms. The labour officials are yet to issue directions on the matter. Workers from 26 hot-rolling steel plants – where iron blocks are converted into steel – went on strike on June 5. The workers organised as Garam Rolla Mazdoor Ekta Samiti have demanded they should be paid the minimum wage of Rs.10,374 for skilled work as per the Delhi Government norms and provided with Provident Fund accounts and Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) cards for health benefits. The workers held several meetings at Raja Park in Wazirpur, took out demonstrations and picketed the factories. “We work in harsh conditions in the vicinity of furnaces, operating at over 1,000 degrees Celsius. Sometimes, there are accidents, there have been instances when acid spilled over. Despite all these, we are cheated of minimum wages and benefits by plant owners,” said Vikrant, an 18-year-old worker.

Another worker said they were threatened when they asked for legal benefits. “I worked as an electrician for seven years at a hot-rolling plant. When I asked for my PF and other benefits the employers asked me to leave. I could not find another job as an electrician and now put iron blocks into the furnace in another plant now,” said a worker in his early 20s.

Labour activists said with labour officials agreeing to meet the workers and inspect the plants, they were hopeful labour laws would be implemented.

“We met the Labour Commissioner on Monday and he deputed an inspection team with a labour official, a health officer, and a factory inspector to visit the plants. They found that most owners are running plants without registration numbers and do not follow even the Factories Act or the Minimum Wages Act. They seized a few plants’ records, and asked the owners, who could not produce the documents, to appear at the office this morning,” said Sunny Singh, a labour activist with Mazdoor Bigul Dasta, who is supporting the Garam Rolla Mazdoor Ekta Samiti workers’ strike.