Centre seeks reports from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana on protests for wage hikes

The Centre is monitoring violent protests by workers in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana over wage hikes amid rising living costs and inflation.

The Centre has sought reports from state authorities on violent protests by workers in industrial hubs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, after the two states swiftly hiked minimum wages to contain strikes that caught authorities unaware, people aware of the matter said Tuesday. The labour ministry-headed Chief Labour Commissioner has sought details on the situation, one of the persons cited above said.

The protests were triggered by differences over a routine hike in minimum wages, which is linked to the Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers). (HT Photo/Sunil Ghosh)

The government is keeping watch on what one of the people cited above said was “misinformation being spread” that the labour codes, a set of reform-oriented legislation, had impacted wages and shifts.

The labour ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment.

The first protests broke out in Haryana’s Manesar, an automobile manufacturing hub, on April 7, as factory workers demanded wage hikes and better work schedules. On Tuesday, workers went on the rampage in Noida’s Sector 62, an area where a large number of mid-size factories are located.

“There are these core issues, including wages and shifts. Our team is taking part in negotiations with government authorities so I can’t go into the details right now. Police have kept our leaders under house arrest (a police measure that temporarily confines people to their homes),” said TN Karumalaiyan, the national secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

A second trade union leader, requesting anonymity, said Gangeshwar Dutt Sharma, district secretary, CITU, Noida, was among the top trade unionists placed under house arrest and no one was being allowed to meet him. Authorities in both states held talks with workers’ leaders, as well as factory owners and managers, who say rising costs of raw materials had hurt operations.

The protests were triggered by differences over a routine hike in minimum wages, which is linked to the Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers), a measure of price change specifically meant for setting the floor salary for factory workers. It is usually revised twice a year, in April and October.

The country has two minimum wage benchmarks at the federal and state levels. Since both states and the Centre have jurisdiction over labour as per the Constitution’s distribution of administrative functions, states decide the floor wage on sectors that fall in their domain, while the federal authorities decide minimum earnings in some sectors, such as mining.

The initial disagreement among some worker groups in Manesar was over the floor wage in the state, amid rising costs caused by the West Asian conflict. As protests spread, the Haryana government swiftly raised the minimum monthly wage for unskilled workers to ₹15,220 month, while hiking floor earnings for semi-skilled workers to ₹16,780 a month. Wages for skilled workers were set higher, at ₹18,500.81 a month.

“These raises take into account the changes in inflation and authorities will probe if firms deviate from this,” a second person aware of the matter said. Overall, wages were hiked by at least 35%.

On Monday evening, Uttar Pradesh government issued a notification, raising floor wages for workers in the National Capital Region.

The CITU, citing rising costs, has been demanding free or subsidised free cooking gas for workers registered on the e-Shram portal, and a central database of unorganised workers, another union leader said, adding they had written to state chief ministers and “all relevant authorities”, seeking cushioning of inflationary impacts.

It has also demanded emergency assistance of ₹10,000 for workers in Delhi, “assuring all cooperation with the government”, a spokesperson said.