Tamil Nadu: Labour department gets 1,600 calls on pay cuts, lay-offs
CHENNAI: The state department of labour and employment has received more than 1,600 calls from people complaining about non-payment of salaries, wage cuts and layoffs since the lockdown began. Most of the complainants work in the IT sector and private firms. Some of them have not been paid for the month of March. Chennai topped the list with 550 complaints in the past 40 days. Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts followed behind closely. T Kathiravan, who works as an air-conditioner technician in a private firm in the city, said he was not paid salary for the month of March and was paid less than half his pay for April. “There are five technicians working in the company. While two of them received their full salaries for the months, a colleague and I were asked to ‘adjust’,” he said. “We are still sent to customers’ houses to repair their ACs. We have to spend on the commute from our own pockets, there is no reimbursement either,” he said. A large number of employees working in privat...