Officials attached with two real estate majors, Simplex Infrastructure and Salarpuria Sattva, have been booked by police for not paying salaries to around 700 labourers in Bengaluru since October. The FIR (first information report) by Byatarayanapura Police Station against five officials of the two companies has been registered under Sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust.), 417 (punishment for cheating), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 491 (Breach of contract to attend on and supply wants of helpless person) and 34 (common intention).
The accused have been named as A1-PK Mishra,, A2-Govind Raj, A3-Prakash, A4-Honesh Murthy attached to Salarpuria Sattva Divinity Project at Nayandahalli. The A5 in the case is Jai Dev Rai, A6 is Praveen Kumar who are working with SImplex Infrastructures.
The FIR was registered based on the complaint of a sub-contractor and labourer from Odisha, Anang Nayak, who was hired by Simplex.
Speaking with TNM, Ananag said, “There are around 23 labourers working under me. From October, payments are left pending. In total in the Nayandahalli area, there are 700 labourers, working under 55 big, small contractors, who are desperately waiting for their salaries. We were told all our due payments will be cleared by March 31 but since the lockdown the contractors are not picking up their phones and there is no way to reach them.\
“When there is no work and they are in distress why are they delaying the wages? In total I am owed a total of Rs 6,28,000 for me and the workers who work with me,” he added.
Basawa, a lawyer working with the Alternative Law Forum in Bengaluru said that in this FIR was preceded by a complaint registered by the Labour Department under the Payment of Wages Act.
“In this case, Simplex was hired by Salarpuria to do construction, plastering and housekeeping work for a residential project. So here Salarpuria is supposed to pay Simplex and Simplex pays to the workers themselves individually or through sub-contractors. In this case, there are 700 workers who were not paid their full wages from October 2019. And when there was no solution, the workers went on strike in February. Reacting to the protest, the Assistant General Manager of Simplex made a promise on the company letterhead that by March 31 all payments will be made. But then there was lockdown and there was no communication made to the workers,” he said.
He added, “So in this lockdown a video depicting the distress by the workers caught the attention of the Chief Minister and Suresh Kumar, Education Minister from the government side visited the workers sometime in the beginning of April. Then he also made promises that he will sort the workers’ issues and then the complaint with the Labour Commissioner was issued.”
Kaleemullah, an activist with Swaraj Abhiyan, who unionised these workers said they want the stat government to ensure all dues to the informal workers to be cleared. Further he said rge government should provide free transport to those who have lost their livelihoods.
Reacting to the development, PK Mishra, Vice President, Salarpuria Sattva said, "At Salarpuria, we believe in maintaining transparency and follow high standards of work ethics. As per the contract, Simplex Infrastructure were supposed to pay the daily wage workers. Upon knowing that this was not being followed, Salarpuria Sattva paid the workers their dues during the entire lockdown period which mounted up to Rs.18 lakhs. The company also ensured that the workers were provided with essential groceries and ration as well. We have not yet received any information on the FIR filed. We will examine and respond after receipt of information. We are a law abiding entity and given the grave danger of pandemic we are in, we will never shy away from our responsibilities towards humanity.”