Illegal And Unconstitutional: Kerala HC Calls For Ban On Nokkukooli

• Nokkukooli, also known as ‘gawking wages’ or ‘wages for just looking on’ is a widely recognised malpractice which is bringing a bad name to the state of Kerala. It is a mode of extortion in which labour unions demand money for letting any employer unload his goods using his own labour or machines.
• The way this system works is that the Labour Unions generally post members as lookouts who, after spotting a quarry, spread the news to all the available union members who descend upon the unloading site and demand exorbitant rates for doing the work which is not accompanied by efficiency for which they demanded the money to begin with. What follows is a compromise, by which the employer essentially pays two groups- one for actually doing the job and the other being the Labour Union workforce, just for looking on.
• In the present case of T.K.Sundaresan vs. District Police Chief, the Hon’ble Kerala HC observed that “It is unclear how this practice is spreading it’s tentacles in our small State, but it is common, admitted knowledge that it is being widely practiced in the State, as if it is an entitlement amongst trade unions. It is an unintended by-product of a well intended legislation”.
• A plea was filed in the Hon’ble HC by a man who was not provided with the necessary workerforce in pursuance to a dispute between him and the union over nokkukooli.
• The Court delved into the history of the Kerala Headload Workers Act, 1978, saying that the purpose of this legislation was to safeguard the interests of labourers, but has now been turned into a medium of extortion by the Labour Unions.
• It was suggested by the Court that the practice of manual labour has to be modernised by way of mechanical assistance so that massive bodily trauma to the labourers could be avoided.
• The directions issued by the Court were as follows-

1. Demand of nokkukooli in any form or manner is unconstitutional.
2. If any complaint is made with regard to any demand to nokkukooli, the same has to be registered under the appropriate sections of the IPC including extortion, among others.
3. The Government should carry out the amendment suggested by the Court to regulate the industry.
4. The Welfare Board and the Government need to devise methods to modernize the Act.

And now, a question for our judicial aspirants-

In which case has the Supreme Court held that the right to work is a Fundamental Right ?