The number of wage dispute cases reported to the Department of Labour has been increasing over the years. This year alone saw almost 300 cases reported as compared to 330 cases in the whole of last year. The majority of wage dispute cases have been reported from the construction sector.
Over 1,000 wage dispute cases have been reported from 2019 until April of this year.
More than 600 cases have been solved through mediation, while the labour department forwarded 380 cases to the court.
The Department of Labour says most of the cases are from the construction sites. In cases where there are no agreements between employers and employees, the department hands such cases over to the Construction Development Board.
“Sometimes, when we have a written agreement or even if do not have an agreement, some of them do not pay us on time. We face some problems, so we have to go to the court. Some courts do not accept our case but some do and they come to our site and accept that we have been working hard,” said Dawa, a painter.
“Sometimes, the contractor does not give us money and some do not give the pay on time. We had to face many problems. In the past, when we use to chat on WhatsApp, friends used to complain a lot about not getting paid or not getting paid on time,” said a mason, Kiran Kumar Rai.
Any complaint filed to the Department of Labour is expected to be solved within 14 working days.
However, wage disputes in the construction sector get extended to months when the parties involved do not respond to the department.
“Some of the parties involved in the cases have a fixed location and a well established office but most of the cases is that they are either sub contractor whether they are Bhutanese or foreign worker, they are subcontractors. And the dispute comes only after completing the work. By that time the fixed location of that defendant is not there. So, it is very difficult for us to catch hold of that. The other means for us to contact them is to makes calls and most of the times the numbers are switched off or they have changed their mobile number,” said Ngawang Norbu, senior labour officer of Department of Labour.
The Department of Labour settles the dispute by making an employer pay the wage in installments if the employers are short of money.
If the department finds that the employers are still not paying the employee, then the cases are forwarded to the court.
Singye Dema
Edited by Sherub Dorji
