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?Wage revision won?t benefit labourers?
THE STATE Government may have tried to give benefit through minimum wage revision with the State Cabinet approval, but trade union and Left leaders feel the amendment may not achieve its very objective. They owe their hunch to abolition of the Inspector Raj. It is worth mentioning that with the abolition of the Inspector Raj, Labour Department officials have virtually lost the power to conduct raids on industrial units without prior permission of the district magistrate.
THE STATE Government may have tried to give benefit through minimum wage revision with the State Cabinet approval, but trade union and Left leaders feel the amendment may not achieve its very objective.
They owe their hunch to abolition of the Inspector Raj. It is worth mentioning that with the abolition of the Inspector Raj, Labour Department officials have virtually lost the power to conduct raids on industrial units without prior permission of the district magistrate.
“Most industries are in the unorganised sector and the agencies, which have been assigned the duty of watchdog, fail to enforce the existing minimum wages in such units. Therefore, a large section of labourers continues to suffer,” said All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) state vice-president Arvind Raj Swaroop.
The State Cabinet approved on Friday minimum wages covering about 17 lakh workers engaged in 59 Government scheduled employment institutions by giving a hike of at least Rs 14 per day to labourers.
However, toeing the line of Swaroop, CITU city unit general secretary and CPM state member Arvind Kumar said the existing unfair deal between enforcement agencies and employers was a major cause of exploitation of the labour force in the unorganised sector.
He further said the Labour Department was not taking up the issue of dispute settlement between labourers and employers, though such disputes could be settled by arranging meetings between workers and employers. These meetings could be mediated by the Labour Department.
Expressing concern, he added that in rare cases such attempts were being made by Labour Department officials.
The State Government was more inclined to benefit industrialsts by restricting the Labour Department on the pretext of curtailing the Inspector Raj, said Kumar.
He alleged that most of the big industries were employing work force through contractors. “Subsequently, these contractors were indulging in exploitation of labourers. But it is difficult to apprehend them.”
INTUC district president Pardeep Sarswat said that implementation of minimum wages had been very poor by enforcing agencies in the past. “Therefore, new wages will hardly make any good impact on the labour community.”
However, during the press conference on Saturday, State Labour Commissioner Sharda Prasad had stated that the Labour Department was making efforts to ensure maximum registration of the contractors. Interestingly, Prasad had added that if any violation was found on the part contractors the principal company would be held responsible.
With full energy the Labour Department was engaged in ensuring implementation of the labour laws so that minimum wages were paid by employer to their workers, added Prasad.
