The Centre will soon come up with a National Minimum Wage Act which all the state governments are required to implement, Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said here.
Speaking on the sidelines of the CII’s national council meeting, Dattatreya said, “Minimum wage has to be fixed by the state government but we want a National Minimum Wage Act. We want enactment of a law. It will be statutory and every state has to implement that minimum wage.”
The minister said that the “formula” on the wages was ready and it would come out “shortly”.
“Now we are making a formula and we are ready to go within one or two months and we will declare what will be the minimum wage at the national level and accordingly all state governments have to implement it,” Dattatreya added.
In fact, discussions with the state governments and the trade unions regarding the matter have already been completed, the minister said.
“Already we have discussed the matter with state as well as the trade unions … And the trade unions are asking Rs 15,000 (as the minimum wage).”
Incidentally, the minimum wage floor currently is Rs 160, which was hiked from Rs 137 by the Centre this July.
Stating that by the end of this financial year, the Centre would recruit around one crore people, the minister said that the Centre was planning to bring out four major codes reforming the labour laws.
“There are 44 labour laws. We wanted to go in for four major codes because the laws were made 50 years ago. And to tune with today’s situation reforms are necessary for the simplification, rationalization and to avoid the compulsion process we are planning to bring out four codes,” he said.
The codes would be on wages, on industrial relation, on social security and on the working condition and safety, Dattatreya said, adding that all the 44 labour laws would come in the four codes.
“We want to amalgamate the four wage Acts (Minimum Wages Act 1948, the payment of wages Act 1936, Payment of bonus act 1965 and equal remuneration Act 1975) into the labour code on Wages,” he stated.
The Centre was also planning to increase the wages of the labourers from 15 days to 45 days in case of a lock-out in a factory, the minister said.
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