No relief for kin of manual scavengers who died in 2016

A labour court in Thane has denied compensation to families of three manual scavengers who had died in 2016 after entering a manhole and inhaling toxic fumes. The court said there is a lack of oral or documentary evidence regarding their employment.

The families had not led evidence to prove their claims made in their application, it said. “The burden was upon them to prove their own case, however, they failed to do so,” it stated, adding that there is no cogent oral or documentary evidence before it in support of the application.

The families, including widows, children and parents of the men – Mohammad Shaikh, 27, Hanif Shaikh, 41 and Ajaul Shaikh, 41 – had approached the labour court in February 2017 with an application for compensation under the Employees Compensation Act from the employer Sayrul Shaikh and the insurance firm New India Assurance. They had claimed that the men had died on the spot due to inhalation of toxic fumes after they went down a manhole on June 2, 2016. They had said in their plea that they had sent demand notices to the employer as well as to the insurance company, but had not received a response. They claimed compensation of around 7 to 8.5 lakh along with interest and a penalty for late payment of compensation. The families said their men were on a monthly salary of around Rs 9,000.

The labour court noted that the employer accepted the notice before the court in November 2017, but later did not appear before it and hence an exparte order was passed against him.

The insurance company had filed a written statement and opposed the claims, stating that there was no nexus between the deaths and the employment and that since proper safety measures were not taken by the employer to prevent a mishap, there was a breach of terms and conditions of the policy and hence it was not liable to pay compensation. It also denied that the men were covered under their policy as the name of their employer as mentioned in the applications and as per its own records was different.

Judge T A Saawant, while refusing the pleas for compensation, stated in the order that the applicants miserably failed to prove that at the time of the accident, they were working as paid labour with the employer and also failed to prove their age and salary at the time of the accident.