Nokku kooli is an unofficial labor norm in Kerala under which wages are paid to trade union activists for allowing investors/builders to unload materials using machines or their own labor[1]. In Malayalam, 'nokku kooli', translates into 'gawking wages' or 'wages for (just) looking on'.[2]
Nokku kooli often enjoys a quasi-statutory status. The wages list finalized by the Head-load Workers Welfare Fund Board in an industrial zone in Kochi shows Rs. 200 per load of ready-mix concrete. This, when the entire process is machine-driven. Similarly, one tipper load (lorry which can mechanically tip the load) fetches Rs. 15 for the union. At least 1,000 tipper lorries are at work in the Vallarpadom container trans-shipment terminal site in Kochi. Yet another example was in Idukki. Recently, the state Power minister A.K. Balan publicly censured head-load workers who took Rs 3,000 each as nokku kooli while cranes installed some 14 turbines, each weighing 80 tonnes, atop 120-ft towers, for a windmill farm.[2]
The modus operandi is usually as follows: At almost every industrial zone and residential area in the state, worker's unions posts "lookouts" whose task is to spot vehicles carrying goods. Once a quarry is spotted the news is quickly conveyed to all available union members, who then descend en masse to the place where the goods are to be offloaded. Heated negotiations then commence. The leaders often demand extortionist rates for doing the work. Their demand for a "right to work" is often not matched by an obligation to be efficient. So the usual compromise is for pay the union workers a certain amount for just watching - or gawking - while the work is done mechanically or using in-house workers. The employer, of course, loses both ways while making a double payment for the same work - he pays one group of "workers" for not working and another for actually getting it done.[3]
Widely recognized as an unethical labor practice,[2] it is cited as one of the reasons for poor industrial development in Kerala. Following a recent change of government in the state, the new Labor Minister Shibu Baby John has said attempts to end the menace of ‘nokku kooli' will commence as part of the department's agenda for the 100-day development program of the State government declared by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.[4]