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Excerpt of an article ‘The Great Wage Heist’ by Rejimon Kuttappan – migrant rights defender and
journalist. Published in ‘The Hindu’ on September 20, 2020
Haneesh Kumar P.B., an Indian migrant supervisor in an automobile company in
Oman, was told to resign on April 30, along with some 400 colleagues. In all, the
company asked around 1,400 workers to resign in phases, citing as reason the
COVID-19-induced economic crisis. Haneesh, who was among the first to go, refused
to sign the ‘voluntary’ resignation form and insisted on being terminated so that he
could get the attendant benefits. As per his contract, if the company terminated him,
it would have to give him either a 30-day notice period or a 30-day salary.
As the company couldn’t serve him the 30-day notice period, he was eligible to a
month’s basic salary, around $570. He was never paid this amount, additionally he
was forced to work until May 11, for which the company did not pay him either. Even
more shocking, he didn’t get the $181 food allowance for the 35 days he worked,
which he was assured of when he was terminated.
Haneesh was denied $960 of due wages by the company. In other words, he was a
victim of wage theft, a trend that often goes unreported and unnoticed. In Haneesh’s
case, the company failed to pay him for the 10 days he worked, the 30-day salary for
being terminated, and the food allowance clearly stated in the contract.
“I realised the wage theft only after they credited the amount into my bank account
just two days before I travelled out. So, I didn’t have time to complain either to my
office nor to the Indian Embassy. I had to just give up that money and fly back,” says
Haneesh.
All 1,400 employees who were dismissed from the company faced similar issues. If we
assume the lowest monthly salary to be $250 and calculate the unpaid amount for
10 days as well as the denied food allowance for each of the 1,400 workers,
Haneesh’s company would have saved — or stolen — $369,000 from its workers.
[Read full story here]
RESPONSIBILITIES OF BUSINESS
Treating people with dignity is always the right thing to do. Enabling access to remedy for exploitation
and enhancing corporate accountability is critical not only to addressing wage theft but also to
preventing future human rights abuses5. Integrating human rights due diligence into corporate risk
management process helps businesses to be better positioned to identify and address risks of wage
theft. It also minimises future legal and reputational risks and costs associated with it – and this is where
adopting good practices bring incentives to businesses.
Complying with national laws and international human rights standards, conducting human rights due
diligence, identifying root causes of wage theft and establishing clear processes to remediate breaches
when found – should serve as minimal guidelines to ensure justice for migrant workers in this crisis.
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https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25837&LangID=E