Crusher unit retains guest workers with pay hike

Krishnamurthy (name changed) of Alapannur village in Thandarampattu taluk, who owns a stone crusher and M-sand manufacturing unit, said they too wanted to return to their native. They even made a representation to the government and a VAO came to facilitate their travel back.

“The VAO demanded that the workers be released to return to their natives. When I told them to stay back for one more month and leave at least after they taught the locals how to operate the various machines, they agreed to stay back for a month if I would increase their monthly wages and deposit the next month’s wages into their bank accounts in advance,” he added.

The workers decided to stay back only when they received SMS from the bank of their wages being deposited. The VAO then sought individual letters from each worker about their staying back voluntarily. But, what irks Krishnamurthy is that local workers are un-willing to learn work.

Asked about this, Collector KS Kandasamy said, “this could be an exception as we have to wait and see what happens after the one-month period is over.”