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State Cabinet hikes wages for labourers
BRINGING UNIFORMITY of wages in 59 different industrial sectors, the State Cabinet has approved a minimum increase of Rs 14 per day for approximately 17 lakh labourers in the State. With the approval on Friday, Uttar Pradesh has become the second highest paying State ? in terms of minimum wages to labourers ? after West Bengal.
BRINGING UNIFORMITY of wages in 59 different industrial sectors, the State Cabinet has approved a minimum increase of Rs 14 per day for approximately 17 lakh labourers in the State. With the approval on Friday, Uttar Pradesh has become the second highest paying State — in terms of minimum wages to labourers — after West Bengal. .
To add to it, instead of seven categories, labourers have been divided into three categories — unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled.
Labour commissioner Sharda Prasad said here today unskilled labourers would get Rs 100 per day on the basis of minimum 26 working days in a month. Similarly, semi-skilled labourers would get Rs 114 per day (Rs 2964 per month), while skilled labourers would get Rs 127 per day (Rs 3290 per month).
The labour commissioner said the department would continue with its effort to ensure that new wages were being implemented by the industries, including contractors working for the industries and production units all over State.
Prasad said it was for the first time that the Cabinet approved the revised wages. Earlier, such decisions were taken by the State Minimum Wage Advisory Board. Besides, the issue was twice discussed by the State Cabinet and once by the specially constituted committee of state ministers, Prasad said.
The Cabinet decision would be implemented after a notification was issued. This would take a week’s time, sources said.
However, labourers in the carpet and glass industries did not come under the purview of the new wage structure. Workers in these two industries were paid on unit basis, Prasad said.
Prasad said to fix a minimum wage in these two industries a tri-party committee would soon be constituted. He said the committee would consist of representatives of employers, employees and government.
On the other hand, the new wage structure may face resistance from labour unions as they had been demanding minimum wage of Rs 3500 instead of the present Rs 2244 per month.
On implementing the new wages, Prasad said Labour Department teams were already engaged in the exercise.
