Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XIII. - Indebtedness

Collection:: Economics Books

236 CHAPTER XIII. recommend, therefore, that besetting an industrial establishment for the recovery of debts be made a criminal and cognisable offence. Beset- ting might be defined as loitering within the precincts or near or within sight of any gate or outlet of the establishment. This should go far to cripple the activities of a class of money-lender already generally regarded as a pest to society. It should also bring to an end the still more deplor- able practice of some employers who permit the money-lender to enter the factory compound and to collect his dues before the workers’ wages reach their hands. Recruiting Advances. We have had in view hitherto the protection of the worker from the temptation to incur substantial and unproductive debts. We deal in conclusion with certain features associated with important sections of Indian industry which, while not responsible for the bulk of indebtedness, tend to enhance the burden on a number of workers. The first of these is the practice of making the worker pay for the cost of his own recruit- ment. An advance is paid by the employer or his agent partly as an inducement to enter employment, partly to cover the actual travelling expenses and partly, in some cases, to secure a hold over the worker after he has been recruited. This practice is very rare among factory owners, but it is common elsewhere, especially where labour is engaged through contractors. The result is to saddle the worker with an additional burden of debt at the outset of his industrial career, if not on each occasion when necessity drives him back from the village to industry. We consider that if an employer or his agent finds it necessary to advance travelling expenses to secure labour, he should pay these himself. The practice of giving an advance in addition to travelling expenses is one that lends itself to abuse ; few workers can resist the prospect of cash in hand, which is often unwisely spent and which may secure their being bound to serve an employer under hard conditions. We recommend, therefore, that the recovery of any amount advanced to meet the expenses of recruitment of labour should be illegal, and that, so far as other advances are concerned, no amount advanced before actual employment begins should be recover- able except from the first wage payment. This will not preclude an em- ployer or his agent advancing the first wage that the employee will earn, but it will make it possible for the employee to start on his second wage period unencumbered by debt to his employer. In those establishments to which our proposals relating to the control of deductions are applied, the deduction of advances other than those which we have treated as legitimate can be dealt with by the law which we have recommended in the preceding chapter. Elsewhere. illegal advances will merely be irrecoverable at law. Periods of Wage Payment. The other feature which adds to the embarrassment of the work- ers in many centres is the comparatively long period in respect of which wages are paid. and the delay which is apt to occur in their payment. The most usual period of payment in oreanised industry is the month.

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