₹3,000 Crore Construction Workers' Cess Lying Unutilised: Delhi High Court Seeks Action Plan For Welfare Benefits

Noting that around Rs. 3,000 crore collected as cess for the welfare of construction workers is lying unutilised, the Delhi High Court has directed the Centre, Delhi Government's Labour Department and the concerned Welfare Board to state whether they have an action plan to extend benefits from the corpus.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia was told that the unutilised corpus has resulted in construction and other workers being deprived of their due benefits.

The Court was dealing with pleas raising concerns regarding the implementation of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

The Bench noted that the statutory regime governing construction workers has undergone a transition following enactment of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020.

The Court directed the Union Government, Labour Department of the State Government and the Welfare Board to file fresh affidavits detailing the steps taken to extend benefits available to construction and other workers.

The authorities have also been directed to state whether they have an action plan for extending benefits from the cess corpus.

“We further direct that in case no such action plan is in place, the same shall be prepared/enforced in alignment with the statutory requirements of the new labour laws,” the Court said.

It also directed that while registering employers of construction and other workers, all requirements under the new Codes and Rules must be followed, including requiring employers to furnish a list of construction workers employed by them.

“The Affidavits shall be filed within a period of four weeks from date. The Affidavits shall be served upon learned Counsel representing the Petitioners in both the Petitions in advance, who will have a week's time thereafter to file the Rejoinder Affidavits, if any,” it directed.

The Court cautioned that failure to file the affidavits, or filing affidavits without the requisite information necessary for adjudication of the issues, “will be viewed seriously”.

The matters are now listed for hearing on November 18.