Workers

ESIC launches SPREE 2025 to expand social security coverage for workers

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has rolled out Scheme for Promotion of Registration of Employers and Employees (SPREE) 2025 to expand its social security coverage, an official statement said. The corporation approved SPREE 2025 during its 196th meeting in Shimla on June 27 under the chairmanship of Labour & Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. The scheme will be active from July 1 to December 31, 2025 and provides one-time opportunity for unregistered employers and employeesincluding contractual and temporary workersto enrol without facing inspections or demands for past dues. Employers can register their units and employees digitally through ESIC portal, Shram Suvidha and MCA portal. Registration will be considered valid from the date declared by the employer. No contribution or benefit will apply for periods prior to registration. No inspection or demand for past records will be made for the pre-registration period. The scheme encourages voluntary complianc

India-Pakistan tensions: Back home, border area workers wait and watch

With tensions now subsiding since the ceasefire between the two countries on May 10, those still posted there are breathing a sigh of relief after an anxious period punctuated by blackouts and sirens

Blinkit delivery staff say IDs blocked after strike, restored on apology

Delivery partners said the company asked them to give written assurance against repeating such actions, warning it could take any action if they failed to comply

From Tokyo to LA, workers observe May Day, many voice concerns about Trump

Shouting banzai! or live long, thousands of people gathered in a Tokyo park on Thursday and marched through the streets to the banging of traditional drums, as Japan kicked off celebrations to mark May Day. The holiday, also known as International Workers' Day or Labour Day, marks the struggles and achievements of workers and the labour movement around the world. Thousands of people are expected to attend rallies and marches across the US, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. For our children to be able to live with hope, the rights of workers must be recognised, said Junko Kuramochi, a member of a mothers' group who marched in Japan's capital. US organisers say their message this year is focused on fighting back against President Donald Trump's policies targeting immigrants, federal workers and diversity initiatives. Even in Japan, some said Trump's policies hung over the day like a shadow. One truck in the Tokyo march featured a doll that looked like ...

Statsguru: May Day brings focus on future uncertainties for workers

The social protection framework also remains limited in its reach. As of 2022, less than half (48.8 per cent) of the population was covered by at least one form of social protection

One million gig workers registered on e-Shram portal: Mansukh Mandaviya

"The registration of gig workers is an ongoing process, and we're working in line with the Budget announcement. We are likely to register 3-4 million in the next three months," the minister said

Delhi government hikes minimum wages for all categories of workers

The increased wage slabs will be applicable from April 1 2025, a statement by the government said

Chinese workers found in 'slave-like conditions' at BYD's Brazil facility

BYD has cut ties with its contractor Jinjiang Construction Brazil Ltd, and pledged to protect the rights of all subcontracted workers

Lower-paid workers at higher risk of severe injury in auto sector: Report

The report, Crushed 2024, is the sixth annual study on the state of worker safety in the Indian auto sector

Winters of despair: How Delhi's pollution curbs affect construction workers

"When they stop our work, we don't just lose the wages. It's the food on our plates and the little we try to save for our children's future," says Raju Singh, a mason from Bihar. He was one of thousands of migrant and local construction workers rendered jobless following the November 11 ban on constructions, prompted by the Delhi-NCR's air quality plunging to hazardous levels. More such bans are likely to follow throughout the winter. While that is good news for the city's residents, the story is different for these construction workers. "Even though working in the polluted air makes it hard for us to breathe, I would rather work than sit idle," Raju Singh says, describing the crushing blow the restrictions have on his finances. These trysts with work stoppages have become an annual affair for him, and hundreds of others like him. The Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) -- a statutory body responsible for formulating ...

Govt to open e-Shram portal for registration of self-employed workers

New facility aims to add millions of unorganised workers to social security benefits

Samsung workers' strike still on at Chennai unit despite pay hike offer: Know why

HCLTech worker dies in Nagpur; firm claims giving emergency care at clinic

An employee of HCLTech died after suffering a cardiac arrest in the firm's office in Nagpur city, with the IT major sharing that he was provided emergency care at the campus clinic before being rushed to the hospital. According to the police, Nitin Edwin Michael (40), who worked as a senior analyst, was found unresponsive after he entered the washroom of the office of HCL Technologies Ltd. in the city's Mihan area around 7 pm on Friday. His colleagues rushed him to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Nagpur where doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival, said the official from Sonegaon police station on Sunday. Police sent the body for post-mortem and registered a case of accidental death. Initial autopsy findings indicated Michael died of cardiac arrest, the official said, adding that they are probing the circumstances surrounding his death. Michael is survived by his wife and a six-year-old son, according to police. Calling Michael's death an unfortunate inci

Sri Lanka's workers live on margins, politicians still want their votes

Whoever Sri Lanka's next president is, Muthuthevarkittan Manohari isn't expecting much to change in her daily struggle to feed the four children and elderly mother with whom she lives in a dilapidated room in a tea plantation. Both leading candidates in Saturday's presidential election are promising to give land to the country's hundreds of thousands of plantation workers, but Manohari says she's heard it all before. Sri Lanka's plantation workers are a long-marginalised group who frequently live in dire poverty, but they can swing elections by voting as a bloc. Mahohari and her family are descended from Indian indentured labourers who were brought in by the British during colonial rule to work on plantations that grew first coffee, and later tea and rubber. Those crops are still Sri Lanka's leading foreign exchange earners. For 200 years, the community has lived on the margins of Sri Lankan society. Soon after the country became independent in 1948, the new government stripped them

27 Jharkhand workers stranded in Cameroon; appeal for help amid food crisis

In a video message, the workers, from Bokaro, Giridih, and Hazaribagh, said that they were brought to Cameroon on March 31 this year by a private company and have not been paid their salary

Japan to have a shortage of 1 million foreign workers in 2040: Think tank

Foreign workers are crucial to Japan's economy as they help to fill a severe labour shortage

5 workers dead, 49 still missing after building collapsed in South Africa

Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under the rubble of concrete after a multi-story apartment complex that was being built collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa. Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained unaccounted-for in the mangled wreckage of the building, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. Authorities said a further 21 workers had been rescued from the rubble and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries. The collapse happened in the city of George, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa's south coast. More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some of whom were feared buried under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-story building came down. Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipme

Instances when Supreme Court held special sittings on non-working days

The Supreme Court on Saturday held a special sitting after taking suo moto cognisance of an order passed by a single bench of the Calcutta High Court that termed as "illegal" a division bench order in a case of alleged irregularities in admission of MBBS students in West Bengal's state-run medical colleges and hospitals. A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose stayed all proceedings before the Calcutta High Court in the matter and issued notice to the West Bengal government and the original petitioner in the case. This is one of the many instances when the apex court has held a special sitting on a non-working day. The past few years have witnessed the top court constituting special benches to hear during the weekend cases dealing with matters of personal liberty, political crisis in states and pollution in the national capital, among other things. On July 1 last year, the Supreme Cour

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu send most workers to West Asia

Workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu constitute the majority of labour force from India in the construction industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, according to a report. Going by the data of Huntr, the UAE-based marketplace connecting migrant workers with enterprises, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu are the highest contributors to the migration of construction workers from India to the GCC countries. Workers with proficiency in construction skills such as masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrical works, and welding and having prior experience in construction projects, are highly valued by the industries in the GCC countries, the report stated. Further, the report revealed that certifications from the National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) and good physical fitness are essential as well for workers who work in the GCC region. Workers with basic communication skills in English and adaptability to different working

4 workers critical as molten metal falls on them in Gujarat steel factor

At least seven workers were injured on Sunday, four of them critically, when molten metal spilled out of a furnace and fell on them at a steel factory located in Anjar town in Gujarat's Kutch district, police said. The incident occurred in the morning when some workers were putting metal scrap in the furnace. "The molten metal spilled out of the furnace and fell on seven workers, injuring them. They were shifted to a hospital at Gandhidham. Four of them were referred to Ahmedabad for further treatment as their health condition is critical," said Superintendent of Police, Kutch (East), Sagar Bagmar.