File picture of labourers at a constuction site.
The Wage Protection System (WPS), successfully implemented by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs has forced employers to stop the practice of long overtime working hours, which leaves workers exhausted at the end of the day, say industry sources.
Several companies have been forced to hire additional workers to reduce the hours-long overtime work, following some provisions in the Labour Law that have restricted regular work hours at maximum eight hours and overtime work at maximum two hours.
“WPS requires companies to submit payment sheet in detail including wages and overtimes of their workers on monthly basis in a very transparent way,” manger of a construction company told The Peninsula.
“No company could dare to tamper with the payment sheets, else, they would be caught by the system. The companies are afraid that they could be black listed banning them to recruit new workers. They have no other option except to limit the overtime hours as per the law,” said the manager.
“We have hired about 20 percent more workers in a bid to cut the overtime to two hours as per the rule. The additional workers helped us to do a complete shut-down of work-site on Friday giving a weekly off to the workers. Earlier we were forced to run the site on weekly off days with full or half capacity because of workload . Now we send only few workers on Friday for works in case of urgency,” said the manger.
The employers told The Peninsula that they noticed significant improvement in the productivity of labourers due to cut of overtime duty and mandatory weekly rest.
“It is natural that a fresh and healthy worker to be more productive than when they have fatigue and restless,” said a site manager of a construction company. “My company is very strict on implementing the rules regarding the overtime duty and Friday off. We have only two hours overtime and rarely take the workers to the site on Friday. And Friday duty is optional. Some workers even wanted to work on off day to earn additional money but we would not send unless there were some urgency. The management realised the benefit for giving proper rest to workers as it is in the favour of the company,” he added.
Workers expressed their satisfation over the new move of the companies.
“Gone are days when we worked for long hours completely tired and worn out.Now some workers wish to get overtime duty during working days and off day to make extra money,” said Ramu Kharbind, a Nepali worker of a major construction company accommodating in Labour City told The Peninsula.
“Now we have only two hours overtime and gradually it will be gone because summer is coming,” said Mohamad Husain, an Indian worker.
Regarding new rules issued for the welfare of workers, Husain said “we saw significant changes in the situation of workers. We are being provided comfortable accommodation, cooked foods, AC buses and salary on time. Now it is much better from the past,” he added.
