Benefits, including marriage assistance, as stipulated in the Construction Workers Welfare Board, have not reached the workers for the last six months, a meeting of different trade unions claimed today.

The leaders of various trade unions, including INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU and ATP, met and discussed the issues confronting the construction workers, N. Selvaraj, General Secretary of AITUC Construction Workers Union, said.

“The government has not released the marriage assistance, pension, accident assistance and death claims for the last six months, putting the workers into a lot of hardships,” he said.

Moreover, hundreds of applications for pension disbursement were rejected, without giving any valid reasons and also without considering the Government Order that those who had
registered their names before February 28, 2011, and completed 60 years were eligible for the pension, Selvaraj said.

The meeting also demanded the State government give Rs.10,000 per month to construction workers living in flood-hit districts of the State, on the lines of Puducherry Government, which was giving Rs.4,000 to the workers, Selvaraj added.