Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Nov 17: A private security firm operating from Srinagar has duped more than 60 private security personnel by withholding their 11-day salary and not depositing the Provident Fund deducted from their salaries with the Labour Department.
Iqra Consultancy, which was given the contract for providing security at Lalla Ded hospital few years ago appointed 60 of its personnel including women at the hospital. The security firm was always at the loggerheads with the personnel for not releasing their salaries for months till the contract of the consultancy was eventually terminated.
The personnel who were appointed by the consultancy allege that it has not provided them with the salary for eleven days which amounts to more than one lakh rupees for more than 60 such personnel.
The story, as per them, does not even end here. The consultancy has been deducting Rs 600 from the salaries of the employees on account of PF during the period of its contract at the hospital. Even that amount, deducted over the years, has not been deposited in their accounts.
“We were supposed to give Rs 600 per month, to which the consultancy was supposed to add its Rs 600-the amount which was supposed to be deposit into our accounts as per labor laws. The irony is that that has not been done till date even after the contract stands terminated,” said security personnel appointed by the consultancy.
Initially, the consultancy used to add the amount of PF in their salaries and there was no PF account created for the personnel. However, after the issue was brought into the notice of Labor Department, the consultancy created PF accounts for the employees.
After providing its services at the hospital for more than 4 years, the contract of the consultancy was terminated in October 2018 and a new consultancy was given the responsibility of providing the services.
“We were not drawing huge amounts as our salary from the firm and for that too, we were made to struggle. They used to release our salaries after months. Even after doing that, it (the consultancy) did not provide us with the benefits that were supposed to receive,” they told Excelsior.
Even after the passage of almost one year since the culmination of the contract with the hospital, the Chairman of the consultancy firm said that there were few discrepancies in the accounts and that the firm will look into the matter of the salaries withheld.
He, however, contested the allegations of the employees with regard to the Provident Fund. He said that the consultancy was not supposed to deposit the amount in their accounts, rather add that into their salaries. “We will look into the matter of salaries and will do whatever is needful; however, there were no PF accounts created for them, rather the amount was given them in hand as there is an affidavit given out by them,” Muhammad Anwar, Chairman Iqra Consultancy told Excelsior.
His claim of not having created the PF accounts of the employees was again contested by the personnel as they said that if the accounts were not created why they were given the passbooks of their PF accounts. What is ironical here is that, while the hospital administration gives out contracts to security firms, it (the administration) preferred to stay away from the financial mismanagements carried out by the consultancy.
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