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20 Aug 2021

India: Briefing lays out barriers to accessing owed wages & benefits for Gulf returnee workers amid COVID-19

The issue of "wage theft" during the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated migration corridors globally. This briefing looks specifically at the impact of the pandemic and crisis on Indian workers, particularly in the Gulf countries, as they lost their jobs, struggled to access health services and faced systemic non-payment of wages and end-of-service benefits from employers. The number of unresolved grievances cases registered by migrant workers in India from 2019 and 2020 stands at 6,988.

The briefing examines cases collected by Migrant Forum in Asia, finding that the UAE and Saudi Arabia received the highest number of complaints on wage theft from Indian workers (324 and 124 respectively). The majority of cases involved Indian workers in medium to large-sized firms involving construction, hospitality, manufacturing, and transportation. Indian workers also filed the majority of group cases (11) of wage theft, impacting a total of 741 workers.

It also highlights the results of a survey conducted among returnees to Kerala and Tamil Nadu repatriated on India's Vande Bharat mission flights. A key barrier to workers' obtaining owed dues was the lack of access to grievance mechanisms and legal services. For example, of the 1,004 survey workers, only 3.3% received advice on non-payment of wages. Workers cited confusion about whether to prioritise filing a complaint in destination country or taking up emergency repatriation. Only 26% were aware of a complaints mechanism established by the Indian government.

The briefing offers a number of recommendations on how Indian victims of "wage theft" can be assisted.