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 XXII. - Burma and India

Collection:: Economics Books

BURMA AND INDIA. 429 Employment through Intermediaries. The indirect employment of unskilled labour is a feature of industry in Burma, and especially in Rangoon. The great bulk of the Indian labour is pot engaged and often is not paid by the principal employer; he employs a maistry or a contractor and the labour is generally engaged by sub-maistries or sub-contractors. There are one or two striking exceptions, such as, for example, the Burmah Oil Company. But broadly speaking, there is no part of India where responsibility for labour is delegated to the extent prevailing in Burma. The extreme caseis that of the leading factory industry, rice milling. Here the head maistry who, on getting the contract, deposits a substantial sum of money, is responsible for the supply of unskilled labour. He may sub-let the contract, but whether he does or not, most of the labour owes its engagement to men who have no contractual relations with the employer. They hold the labour with the assistance of different types of monetary agreements, and the labourers are generally in debt to them. Mr. Bennison. in the report to which we have referred. states that :— “ Practically all the paddy carriers and the bagging and stitching coolies are in- debted to their sub-maistries.. .. The paddy carriers recrnited in India always arrive in this country indebted to the sub-maistries and usnally remain so for the rest of their lives. - Whenever they want to return to India, the sub-maistry allows them only an condition that thev come back when required.” Direct Payment of Wages. As has been noted elsewhere, the employment of labour through intermediaries tends generally to diminish the prospect of that labour securing reasonable conditions. This is especially applicable to the immigrant labour employed in Burma. Labour conditions for Indian immigrants are unlikely to be satisfactory until the employers assume a much greater measure of responsibility. The first and most obvious measure of responsibility is in respect of the payment of wages. So long as the worker is dependent for the reward of his labour on a subordinate agent of an employer, to whom he may be indebted and without whom he can neither obtain nor retain employment, there is little security against abuse. The first aim, therefore, should be the introduction of a system of direct payment of wages. In many cases employers, by assum- ing responsibility for the payment of wages and by controlling rates, could secure higher earnings for labour without additional cost. We recommend that Government approach the employers with a view to securing reform without legislation, and that, if this fails, the question of legislation for direct payment in certain sections of industry be taken up. The difficulty here is likely to be ome of enforcement, but even the compulsory maintenance of wage registers and insistence on payment by an approved agent of the employer would be of considerable value. It is relevant to observe that the protection of workers against anfair deductions from wages will be difficult to enforce in some Burmese industries unless some action is taken to secure more direct pay- ment

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