Labour groups clamour for

statutory minimum wages

BS REPORTER
New Delhi, 8 January

oluntary groups are dis-

V satisfied with the gov-

ernment decision to link
wages under the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Em-
ployment Guarantee Scheme
(MNREGS) to inflation. They
said this wasn’t enough and
workers must be paid the statu-
tory minimum wage.
While indexation of wages
under MNREGS to the con-
sumer price index for agri-
cultural labourers was a wel-
come step, the core issue per-
sisted, the Mazdoor Kisan Shak-
ti Sangathan (MKSS) said. In
10 states, the wages provided
under the scheme were less
than the prevailing minimum
wages, it claimed.
The organisation quoted a
letter sent to the prime min-
ister by Congress President and
National Advisory Council
(NAC) Chairman Sonia Gand-
hi. It communicated the con-
sensus at NAC, which said
“workers under MNREGS need
to be paid minimum wages mum wage. If the Exemption
as notified under the Minimum Act, by excluding the appli- LABOUR GROUPS
Wages Act, 1948. Also, they are
being paid less than the statu-
cability of the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948, provides that mini-
HAVE BEEN INSISTING
that mere indexing of the
tory minimum wage. This is to- mum wage may not be paid to
tally unacceptable and needs a workman employed in any National Rural Employment
to be corrected at once”. famine relief work, it would be Guarantee Scheme wages
The Ministry of Rural De- clearly violative of Article 23.” to inflation is not enough
velopment (MRD) had done noth- It also cites Additional So-
ing in this regard, MKSS said. licitor General Indira Jaising’s minimum wage. The govern-
It is miffed with the letter opinion: “The non-obstante ment has strayed from its own
sent by the prime minister, cat- clause in Subsection (1) of Sec- promise. In May 2004, UPA’s
egorically saying the govern- tion 6 by itself will not enable common minimum programme
ment had decided MNREGS the central government to fix noted the government would
workers would not be covered wage at a rate lower than pro- abide by six basic principles for
under the provisions of the Min- vided under the Minimum governance. These included “en-
imum Wages Act. Wages Act. The payment of hancement of the welfare and
The outfit claimed this was wage below the minimum wage well-being of farmers, farm
in spite of a strong contradic- would amount to forced labour. labour and workers, particularly
tory opinion from the labour The labour ministry, too, has those in the unorganised sector”
ministry, among others. put on record its “fundamen- and “providing a legal guaran-
MKSS said the minimum tal objections” to Section 6(1) tee for at least 100 days of em-
wages were sacrosanct and their of the Act, cautioning it will not ployment […] every year at min-
violation was a violation of cit- stand legal scrutiny, since it un- imum wages, for at least one
izens’ fundamental rights, and dermined the sanctity of the able-bodied person in every ru-
amounted to “forced labour”. Minimum Wages Act. ral, urban poor and lower mid-
“This has been repeatedly The organisation said MRD dle-class household”, MKSS said.
upheld by the Supreme Court. had deliberately ignored the “The right thing for the gov-
In Sanjit Roy vs State of Ra- orders of the Andhra Pradesh ernment is to notify the prevailing
jasthan (1983) case, it even de- High Court and was facing con- state minimum wage, wherev-
clared the Exemption Act un- tempt proceedings for not pay- er the increased indexed wage
constitutional, saying: “No per- ing minimum wages to MN- rate is less and use these rates
son shall be required or per- REGS workers. as the base for future indexa-
mitted to provide labour or serv- “Even the current notifica- tion. This is the only constitu-
ice to another, on payment of tion will result in MNREGS tionally, legally and politically
anything less than the mini- workers getting less than the tenable solution,” it said.