Officials of the Labour Department conducted raids on the star hotels across the State on Wednesday, and booked cases against several hotel managements for violating the Labour Laws and Acts. The raids were continuing in different places till midnight when the reports last came in.
Following directions from Special Commissioner (Labour) G. Rekha Rani, the teams under the supervision of Joint Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners of Labour inspected the hotels and found many violations.
Raids were conducted in Visakhapatnam, Rajamahendravaram, Guntur, Vijayawada and other zones. The raids will continue on Thursday, said Joint Commissioner of Labour Rama Rao.
“As the Special Commissioner received complaints on violations under Minimum Wages Act, and other Laws, special squads have been constituted in all zones to inspect the hotels. Raids were conducted in almost all the star hotels in Andhra Pradesh,” Mr. Rama Rao said.
Wages
The managements should obtain licenses under The Andhra Pradesh (Issuance of Integrated Registration and Furnishing of Combined Returns and under various Labour Laws by certain Establishments) Act, 2015. Wages for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled should be paid under the Act, which was not being done, said a member of a squad.
Rules violated
“Some hotel managements gave appointments lowering the grades of the employees and were resorting to irregularities. They were not extending Employees State Insurance (ESI), Provident Fund (PF) and other benefits to the staff,” observed a Deputy Commissioner of Labour (DCL), who was monitoring the raids.
The squads observed that several group hotels were not following The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, Minimum Wages and other Acts and were deceiving both the government as well as the employees, the Deputy Commissioner said, adding that many hotels were not following working hours and not providing safety gadgets.
“Some employees were not given appointment orders and their designations were not mentioned clearly. In some hotels, recruitments were made without obtaining licenses and a few managements were not maintaining payment, leaves, maternity leaves and other ledgers properly”, said an official, who participated in the inspections.
Mr. Rama Rao said that raids were conducted in Tirupati, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Rajamahendravaram, Kakinada and other places. A report would be submitted to Ms. Rekha Rani on the violations, he said.
