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Kochi-Muziris Biennale Foundation Accused of Non-payment of Dues to Workers

The workers and contractor who had worked hard to put up the exhibits and installations have started an Instagram handle titled “justicefrombiennale18_19” to highlight the untold stories of injustice in KMB.
The legal notice was sent on behalf of Thomas Clery Infrastructures and Developers (TCID) Pvt Limited on March 18 to the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), that runs the art exhibition

Image Courtesy: The Indian Express

The 2018 edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) which is considered as one of Asia’s most prestigious art festivals, has been surrounded with a number of controversies. Now, as the biennale enters into its last week, the KMB foundation has been accused of not paying the dues to the workers. The KMB management was sent a legal notice by the contractor who has been associating with the biennale for long.

Earlier, the festival had been involved in controversy when there were Me Too allegations against its co-founder Riyas Komu. Komu on Tuesday, March 19 ended all ties with the foundation resigning from his post. In October 2018, shortly after the allegations, he had stepped down from the managerial positions of the KMB foundation.

The workers and contractor who were in the forefront to ensure that the exhibits and installations had been put up, have started an Instagram handle titled “justicefrombiennale18_19” to highlight the untold stories of injustice in KMB. They demand that the organisers should clear their dues before the festival ends on March 29.

“The Architectural and Structural details demanded a lot of precision. The fabricators and all the team were happy to push themselves and race against time. Every skilled soul who worked at the Pavillion is unpaid,” reads one of the Instagram posts.

Though the workers had been receiving their wages on time till mid-November, now the scenario has changed completely. The legal notice served to KMB foundation dated March 18, 2019, was on behalf of contractor Appu Thomas of Thomas Clery Infrastructures and Developers Pvt. Ltd. who carried out the works at the main venues- Aspinwall House and Cabral Yard.

Thomas said, "They [KBF] were extremely good with the payments till mid-November and had already paid us and some vendors cumulatively Rs 1.42 cr (the total amount is Rs 2.8 cr) and there were absolutely no issues then. And then they suddenly stopped paying, but we couldn’t stop because there was so much work left; the architect and the sponsors were giving us instructions continuously on various projects at the Biennale. Plus, we had immense trust in them because we have been working with them for so long. That is one reason we went ahead and completed the work."

According to The Hindu, the legal notice warns of criminal and civil proceedings against the biennale foundation if they fail to clear the outstanding amount of Rs 77,59,277. KMB foundation also owes other vendors a total of Rs 45,75,315, the notice claimed.

However, an independent, government approved valuer who had verified the bills in January this year recommended only a little more than half of the amount that has been claimed by the contractor.

“In my opinion, [the] labour bill amount from various vendors claimed by the contractor is exorbitant, hence recommended only 45% of the total (sic),” the valuer told The Hindu.

The notice also alleged “since preparatory works such as load bearing test and soil investigation were required to be done immediately, both our client and the architect contacted you multiple times about this, including through emails on 14-07-2018, 06-08-2018, and 27-08-2018. It was specifically brought to your attention that these steps needed to be taken promptly in order to avoid the cost escalations that would be inevitable if there was going to be only a shorter window of time for construction. Despite all this, there was no prompt response or action from your end.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by justicefrombiennale (@justicefrombiennale18_19) on Mar 25, 2019 at 12:05am PDT

KMB foundation president Bose Krishnamachari, however, said that they will respond to the notice very soon. “Everything is in order,” he added.

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