Insecure salaries for security staff

KOCHI: The security personnel deployed at the Vytilla Mobility Hub are deprived of basic labour rights and most of them are not even covered under Provident Fund (PF) or Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) schemes. Besides, eight hours of work under the labour laws, the security staff at the hub is forced to work additional four hours every day. “Our actual salary is Rs 233 a day and in case of 31 days a month, they cut short it to Rs 225 per day,” said a security guard in the hub.Shockingly, no valid contract papers are signed between the employees and the company that recruits them. Instead of providing valid salary slips, these agencies provide hand written salary details without authorisation to the employees. “Mostly, the agency deduct our salaries citing unaccounted reasons and when asked, they would not give us a satisfying answer”, a security guard said.In addition, the employees are not entitled to official leaves and weekly offs. Earlier, the security staff had approached labour unions and raised the issue. “We have given notice to the agency but they have not responded positively,” said N K Byju, a CITU leader.When contacted, the company denied the allegations. The owner of the company said that it is difficult to pay according to the regulations of the labour ministry. “The amount paid by the mobility hub authorities for the service does not meet the money required to pay the salaries and other allowances as per the government norms,” he said. There are 22 security guards working at the hub and the authorities are paying only `10,000 for a security person, he added.However, the mobility hub managing director M Beena said that they are paying around `3 lakh to the agency. She also said that they had given contract to the agency on the grounds of their affirmation to provide PF and ESI to the employees. “We will inquire about the issue raised by security staff. If there are any irregularities, stringent action will be taken against the agency,” she said.