NHRC seeks report from Centre on ‘anti-labour practices’ at Amazon warehouse
The NHRC statement said the Centre has been insisting on improving ’ living standards of workers and introduced several schemes
NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday asked the Union labour secretary to submit a detailed report on allegations of “anti-labour practices” at a warehouse of e-commerce giant Amazon in Haryana’s Manesar.
The commission has told the labour secretary to submit the probe report within seven days.
The move comes against the backdrop of media reports on the working conditions at an Amazon warehouse where the workers could not even go to the washroom for hours.
On June 7, HT reported on the working conditions at a warehouse in Manesar where workers alleged that they were not allowed to take washroom breaks for hours. They also complained about the absence of safety gear, the strenuous nature of the job which involved walking almost 20-25km in the warehouse through the shift and violation of labour laws.
An Amazon spokesperson had previously described the allegations as untrue and underlined that the company had taken several measures to ensure safety of its workers.
Wednesday’s NHRC statement cited one media report, and observed that it raised “a serious issue of human rights of the workers in violation of the labour laws and the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment from time to time”.
To be sure, the statement did not name Amazon.
The commission noted that the government had been insisting on improving workers’ living standards and had introduced schemes for labour welfare.
“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. A scheme was started Shramev Jayate” in the year 2014 targeting the country’s growth and maximum benefit to the workers. Maternity Benefit Amendment Act, 2017 also came into effect to increase the paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks,” NHRC said.
