A team of Labour officers, led by Additional Labour Commissioner Prakash S Oliver, made a flash visit to ‘Iridium’, one of the medical transcription companies at the Technopark (a division of GTTL), Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) around 11.30 am and verified the registers maintained by the company on the working hours, salary and other details of the employees.

According to the officials, the inspection was initiated after the Office of the Labour Commissioner received an anonymous letter regarding violation of laws in the company. It was alleged that the employees were asked to work for long hours and the salary and other benefits given to them were not satisfactory. However, the officers could not find irregularities in the documents presented to them. Meanwhile, the ‘surprise’ visit turned out to a farce as the visual media was given prior information regarding the visit. A few of them had, in fact, given flash news regarding the inquiry well before it began.

The Additional Labour Commissioner said that the company had expressed its willingness to produce any document. The company authorities were also very cooperative, he said. However, the Technopark authorities were virtually kept in the darkness about the visit and inspection. The inspection went on for around one-and-a-half hours.

Irked over the frequent interferences by the government agencies, the Technopark companies are planning to approach Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan to ensure a certain code of conduct before initiating such inspections, it is learnt.