Non-payment of dues since lockdown: Notice served to Statue of Unity contractor L&T

On Friday morning, the SoU management in a statement confirmed that L&T, which has constructed the statue and is also responsible for the maintenance of the site, had defaulted on the payment of wages to its outsourced employees -- mostly the housekeeping staff and security personnel.

The management of the Statue of Unity (SoU), located in Kevadia colony of Narmada district, served a notice to its contracting company Larsen & Tubro (L&T) on Friday, in view of at least 400 workers having protested the non-payment of their salaries since the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown in March. Following the notice by the Chief Administrator of SoU, the company is said to have instantly cleared the wages, officials said.

On Friday morning, the SoU management in a statement confirmed that L&T, which has constructed the statue and is also responsible for the maintenance of the site, had defaulted on the payment of wages to its outsourced employees — mostly the housekeeping staff and security personnel. The site predominantly employs local tribals who had sat in protest against the company, demanding immediate clearance of their salaries that were held up for over two months.

Chief Administrative officer and Deputy Collector of Narmada, Nilesh Dubey, said, “We issued the notice to L&T seeking an explanation for the delay. The company immediately made the payment this afternoon to all the employees. It has not yet given us any explanation for the delay, but we will levy a penalty for the default. It is very clear, even in the government guidelines, that salaries cannot be held up during the lockdown period.”