Call for national minimum wage

The 44th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) on Wednesday suggested a national minimum wage and a higher monthly wage ceiling for the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Act, from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000. The increase is expected to bring more people under the EPF Act.

The two-day conference — a tripartite forum for government, industry and workers’ unions — focused on issues related to social security, fixing of minimum wages and ways to bring more people into employment. The conference ended on Wednesday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had inaugurated the event yesterday. The conference asked the government to fix minimum wages according to the criteria recommended by the 15th ILC in 1957 and the Supreme Court in the Repttakos Co versus Workers’ Union case in 1992. The 15th ILC had recommended fixing of wages on the basis of the calorie intake of the family of the worker.

The recommendation said there was a broad consensus that the Minimum Wages Act should cover all employment and the restrictions for its applicability on scheduled employment should go.

It was also recommended that the payment of minimum wages be done through banks or post offices. The recommendation is likely to see objections from the ministry of finance, which has refused to give its nod to the proposal of the labour ministry to fix a statutory minimum wage for the country.

The ILC also recommended that the minimum ceiling of five years of continuous service in case of gratuity be reduced and it may be made transferable in case of change of job by the employee.

It also asked that maternity leave under the Maternity Benefit Act be increased from 12 weeks to 24 weeks.

Industry disagreed with the recommendations on gratuity and maternity leave. “Making gratuity transferable will make the process complicated,” said Sushanta Sen of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The ILC recommendations are expected to guide the decision making of the government in areas relating to labour. In the next step, the government will give an action taken report on the recommendations within six months.