How a labour helpline is assisting informal workers in recovering wages

In nine months, the India Labourline phone helpline for migrant/informal workers has registered more than 3,600 cases related to compensation and wage theft

Yellapa, 35, was a relieved man. For nearly three months, he had struggled to recover Rs 4,000 worth of wages that a construction contractor owed him and his wife. As a migrant construction worker, Yellapa earns around Rs 700 a day in Bengaluru, a city he calls home for most of the year, save for a few months when he returns to his village 600 km away in north Karnataka's Kalaburagi district.

"I had been trying to recover the wages owed to me and my wife for a few months, but the contractor kept making excuses and delayed paying