Basic minimum wages for central sphere workers revised

Arun Jaitely, the Union Finance Minister, the Union Minister of State(IC) for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya and Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy & Mines had a joint Press conference in New Delhi  on charter of demands of the Central Trade Unions on Tuesday.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment (I/C) has held meetings with Central Trade Union leaders wherein detailed discussions were held in regard to their charter of demands.

Thereafter, the issues were discussed by the Inter- Ministerial Committee headed by the Finance Minister.

The following decisions have been taken by the Government:

1. The Bonus Amendment Act will be implemented strictly. The Central Government will pay Bonus for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 based on revised norms. A government notification in this regard is being issued immediately.

2. The Central Government will take necessary steps to resolve the cases pending in High Courts/Supreme Court with regard to payment of Bonus.

3. It has been decided that, based on the deliberations in the meeting of the Minimum Wage Advisory Board under the Chairmanship of Minister for State for Labour and Employment (I/C) for revising the basic minimum wages for central sphere, the Government has decided to fix the minimum wages at Rs.350/- per day for unskilled non-agricultural workers for ‘C’ category areas keeping in view the modalities of fixing minimum wages.

4. The registration of the contract workers and their staffing agencies is mandatory as per law and states will be advised to strictly implement the same. Erring contractors will face appropriate action for any violation in this regard.

5. The issue of giving social security benefit to the unorganised sector (eg., Anganwadi, Mid-day meal, Asha volunteers etc.) will be examined by a committee which will give its report at the earliest.

6. Advisories will be issued to all the States Governments to ensure that registration of Trade Unions takes place within 45 days.

7. The Central government has reiterated its commitment towards tripartite consultation process.

8. Sector specific meetings will be held to resolve issues relating to respective industries.

Bandaru Dattatreya appealed to Trade Unions to reconsider their call for strike, in national interest.