Four years on, Tamil Nadu’s ‘Right to Sit’ law remains only on paper

CHENNAI: The computer, billing system, and checkout bay are all set at a height comfortable for someone to sit on a stool. Yet, Vikasini stands. “It’s difficult to sit and stand repeatedly in this line of work. Easier to just keep standing,” she said while billing the groceries. When the rush around her counter thinned, she lowered her voice. “There is no chair to sit on.” Standing became easier because sitting was never an option.

From the person who bills your groceries and the staff helping you drape a saree in a multi-storey clothing store to the worker you turn to for help in hypermarkets, these are thousands of women and men who have travelled 300-400 km to Chennai to work as salespersons. For them, sitting has simply never been made part of the job.

While you flashback to Angadi Theru (2010-Tamil film that showed the gruesome reality), here’s a sobering fact: In 2021, the State government amended the Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, introducing what it called a Right to Sit – a legal provision meant to ensure every retail and showroom worker has a seat to rest on during work hours. Tamil Nadu became the second state after Kerala to do so. Yet, the provision has borne little fruit.

Take large-format apparel chains: Was it ever easy for you to find a spot to sit? For workers, there is one, inside a small room that doubles as a storeroom or lunch space. But during their 8-9-hour shift, few ever use it.

“Who will look at the shop if we go there?” asked Selvi, who has worked there for 2 years. The store has 5 women staffers; all said they could sit, but only “with anxiety”.

The law clearly says workers should not be “on their toes”. But by keeping the seating area outside their work area, far from the counters where they serve customers, most branded apparel chains effectively ensure that they are. For young workers, this constant standing is just part of the grind, something to live with. For those who have been at it longer, it is a different story.

To understand how far the Right to Sit law has travelled since 2021, DT Next visited 18 establishments across Chennai, from 8-9 floor multi-utility stores and large-format clothing outlets to hypermarkets, neighbourhood supermarkets and the city’s many nilayams. In most marts, not even a stool was offered as a gesture of grace. Even legendary stores are part of it.

Karthika works at a hypermarket in Virugambakkam. The middle-aged woman with 8 years into this line of work, showed how the veins in her legs “just freeze” when she folds the toes in her leg. She suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and still stands and walks, arranging products and restocking shelves through an 8-hour shift.

After a persistent push, she began to talk, but only after her work ended. “It’s not about me,” she said. “It’s about my cousin, who works in a clothing store in Velachery.”

Hailing from a village near Sivagangai, Karthika brought her cousin after her husband passed away. Her cousin has a 7-year-old and also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, but unlike Karthika, she could no longer bear the pain. “The scope is limited for us to sit on a busy day. But when we do, every eye will be on us. It feels like I am doing something wrong.” Concurring with her was the cousin who added, “We share a small rented house. Eating time is 20 minutes at best. You cannot sit even while drinking tea. On busy days, phones are strictly prohibited.”

Karthika piped in that though they understood the nature of this job, they couldn’t accept “why the company can’t buy a stool and place it where it’s convenient for us”.

Of the 18 establishments visited, except for small neighbourhood provision shops, none of the established or “high-end” stores had stools equal to the number of workers. Again, in the multi-storey outlets, except for the lift operators, none had proper seating arrangements. Many workers said even their short breaks offered no real respite, often spent sitting on emergency exit steps or crouched in narrow corners of the store.

Of the 12 persons interviewed, mostly women, several earn a meagre Rs 9,000/month. “If we’re working outside the city limits, it’s Rs 7,000,” said Subhashini, who works in a supermarket in Ennore.

“We’re treated like slaves,” said Vikashini, and by slaves, she meant this: “I’ve asked for a stool several times. I’m in a billing counter; I can’t always stand; I can sit and still complete my work. First, they said it’s not possible, then told me to write an email or take it up with higher authorities. Next time, it was either stand or lose the job.”

“The purpose of a law is in its implementation, but the government’s labour department is toothless, that’s why it’s still prevalent,” said S Kannan, Tamil Nadu CITU deputy general secretary.

(Workers’ names changed to protect privacy)