Minimum Wages Act: Modi Govt to Revamp Old Labour laws

The union cabinet is probably going to give approval for the code on wages. The code proposes making minimum wages, a statutory right for all representatives. ‘The code will be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament’,  said a source from labour ministry.

Minimum Wages Act:

Minimum wages is currently applicable to 51 “planned employments” as it were. The code on wages amalgamates the arrangements of four surviving Acts — the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, The Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, and The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965. The act mainly focuses in diminishing difference in minimum wages across all states.

	Madhya Pradesh	Gujarat	Maharashtra*	Uttar Pradesh*	Tamil Nadu*
Unskilled	7125	7946	7656	7400	6850
Semi Skilled	7982	8154	8056	8140	6850
Skilled	9360	8388	8456	9118	6850
Highly Skilled	10660	NA	NA	NA	NA
* Commercial Establishments

The Act will engage the Center to inform about a “national minimum wage permitted by law”. Beneath this, no state can settle their base wages. The Act shall be revised every two years. It will be five years only if the dearness remittance turns out to be a part of the base wages.

The entry of the Code on Wages will be the first among the four. The present allotment is done to release the long-pending labor reform initiative by uniting all the 44 existing work Acts into four codes. These codes are on wages, social security & safety, industrial relation, health & working conditions. This is with the point of improving them and guaranteeing a favorable and agreeable condition for working together.

Impact of the code on workers

The code on wages is the most non-controversial among the two others which have just been drafted. The code on Industrial Relations has a series of propositions like permitting units allowing up to 300 individuals to conserve/lay off workers and/or potentially close down without the government approval.  It will likewise try to characterize industrial strike anew by including concerted casual leave by at least half of the laborers. The arrangement for earlier notice of strike will be stretched out to “all activities like existing public utility administrations”.

The proposed omnibus Labor Code on Security and Welfare (LCSW) has some additional argumentative issues. According to the draft, once comes into drive, a few age-old plans — including provident fund, pension and insurance plans run under the EPF Act, 1952. The sickness benefit scheme comes under the ESIC Act, 1948 — will stop to exist in their present structures.