PF Commissioner initiates probe responding to The Hindu report
The company supplies 607 housekeepers, who clean and sweep Delhi Metro railway stations. It is one of the largest suppliers of housekeepers to DMRC which pays for workers’ wages through contractors’ bills.
The Hindu had first reported DMRC workers’ allegations of wage theft through fake PF accounts on October 21 (“Delhi Metro workers lose crores in wages”).
“We asked for Keshav Security Services’ records after seeing The Hindu ’s report. We issued a notice to KSS under Section 7 (a) of the EPF Act, 1952, ten days ago. The first hearing will be on December 3. It seems that not all their employees are enrolled on the records and they are overcharging from the principal employer,” said Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (South) Gautam Dixit.
DMRC hires over 4,900 workers -- ticket vending machine operators, security guards, sweepers -- on contract through 19 contractor companies.
Metro workers led by the Delhi Metro Kamgar Union (DMKU) allege that DMRC which was the principal employer under the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970, and pays these contractors crores of rupees as part of workers’ wages had failed to make the companies comply with labour laws.
“The contractors do not even issue salary slips to workers with details of their dues. They deduct wages in the name of PF dues, other loans and advances but this money never reaches the workers,” said Ajay Swamy who leads the 187-member Delhi Metro Kamgar Union.
Swamy, a B.Com. graduate from Delhi University, worked as a housekeeper with A2Z Infrastructure, one of DMRC’s contractors, between November 2008 and 2009. He said he was made to leave the job when he tried to question the discrepancies between the stated minimum wage and what was being paid to workers.
DMRC officials maintain that they have shifted to a system of bank transfers for salary payment to reduce these discrepancies in wages received by workers vis-à-vis the legal minimum wages. However, they did not have access to information on the PF details of workers submitted to the Provident Fund office.
Officials in the Provident Fund Commissioner’s office say that DMRC could track these details easily by requesting for a special PF code for all employees hired through multiple contractors. They say they had met DMRC to investigate allegations by workers hired through other contractor companies as well.
“Many of these contractors are supplying workers to multiple government agencies and we are investigating that too. For instance, in the case of KSS, there are irregularities in the payments they are making to over 1,600 workers they provide to various government agencies, including DMRC, BSNL, Northern Railway,” said a senior official.
