Govt Rules Out Wage Board For Sugar Industry

Sugar industry representatives yesterday failed to persuade the Union labour ministry to accept a proposal for setting up a wage board for sugar industry workers.

The proposal was made at the first meeting of the tripartite committee on sugar industry wages which was set up by the Centre a month back. Sparks flew at the meeting as representatives of a dozen trade unions insisted the prevalent system of collective bargaining should be continued.

The labour ministry also agreed with our view that the present system should continue and that there was no need to revive the old practice of wage boards, P.K.Ganguly, secretary of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions said.

The trade unions are asking for a 20-30 per cent increase over the wage levels in different regions in the country while sugar industry is agreeable to a 10 per cent increase. The industry has represented to us that it cannot bear wage cost inputs beyond 10 per cent of the free sale price of sugar. But the government will not take a view on the issue till the elections are over, a labour ministry source said.

The recent decision of the government to offer more than the recommendations of the fifth pay commission for central government employees will also influence the course of wage fixation in the industry, trade union sources said.

Unable to get its proposal on wage board accepted, representatives of two sugar industry bodies said the state-level tripartite committees should continue with determining wage policies in the industry. They were opposed to any interference from the recently created central tripartite committee. However, the National Sugar Workers Coordination Committee consisting of central trade unions and plant unions of the industry, said the tripartite committee should be involved in wage fixing in order to bring about an element of uniformity is wage structures in different regions.

The sugar industry was represented by representatives of Indian Sugar Mills Federation and National Federation of Sugar Co-operatives. Representatives of governments in sugar cane rich states like Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra also attended the meeting.

The system of wage boards was prevalent in the industry till 1989 till trade unions forced the government to give up the practice of setting up new wage boards and allow the system of collective bargining to take place.

Since then, wage revisions have been determined by state-level tripartite committees. But there has a growing demand among sugar industry workers for a tripartite mechanism at the central level. The government of India has now accepted the idea, Ganguly said.

The tripartite committee could not take a decision at yesterdays meeting and decided to meet again in January. But we do not expect the next meeting to take place before the elections are over and a new government takes over, Ganguly said.