Enforcement of the various labour legislations is mainly carried out through 101 Assistant Labour Officers (Grade II) and 10 Inspectors of Plantations. The Assistant Labour Officers are controlled and supervised by 11 District Labour Officers (E) in the Districts except in Idukki, Wayanad and Pathanamthitta where District Labour Officers (G) is entrusted with the enforcement functions also. A state Advisory Contract Labour Board has been constituted and functioning in the State for advising the Govt. in the matter of abolition of contract labour.
The Inspectors of Plantations are functioning under the Chief Inspector of Plantations, an Officer in the cadre of Joint Labour Commissioner, whose headquarters is at Kottayam. The chief Inspector and the 10 Inspectors of Plantations function as a separate Inspectorate for enforcement of Plantations Labour Act 1951 and other labour laws applicable to Plantations in the State. The Assistant Labour Officers are the notified inspectors under 18 Labour Legislations. The Assistant Labour Officers and the District Labour Officers (E) are supervised and controlled by three Regional Joint Labour Commissioner at Kollam, Ernakulam and Kozhikode.
The Additional Labour Commissioner (E) in the office of the Labour Commissioner has overall supervisory charge of the enforcement officers in the state. Besides this, the Labour Commissioner and all other officers in the Labour Commissionerate are empowered to carry out the functions of inspectors under all the 18 legislations mentioned above. A District Labour Officer (HQ) in the Office of the Labour Commissioner is functioning as the Inspector of News paper establishments, for the whole state.
For effective functioning of the enforcement wing, the inspections in establishments are streamlined in such a way that the establishments employing 50 to 250 employees are being inspected by the District Labour Officers (E) while establishments employing more than 250 employees are put in charge inspected by the Regional Joint Labour Commissioners. Special inspection squads for Cashew Industry constituted with the co-operation of different departments, like Provident Fund, E.S.I. etc. have played a very significant role in ensuring various benefits payable to the Cashew Workers in the State.
