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Minimum wages increased

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 18. The Centre today announced an increase in the minimum wages from the present Rs. 50 to Rs. 66 and said that the Minimum Wages Act was in the process of being revised to ensure enforcement of the new wages.

The decision, pending approval of the Central Advisory Committee on Minimum Wages, is likely to benefit lakhs of daily-wagers across the country barring those in the agriculture sector and beedi workers. A separate committee has been constituted for them and it will suggest the revision of their wages.

Announcing this here today at the conclusion of a National Conference of State Labour and Health Ministers on Improvement in the Employees State Insurance Scheme, the Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, said the representatives of all the States had unanimously agreed on increasing the National Floor Level Wage. The mandatory Central Advisory Committee would be shortly constituted to formally approve the revision.

The concept of National Floor Level Wage had been mooted to remove disparity in minimum wages in the country and first fixed at Rs. 35 on the recommendations of the National Commission on Rural Labour to safeguard the interest of the workers in all employment.

The minimum wages were revised and fixed at Rs. 50 in 2002.

Admitting that the enforcement of the Minimum Wages Act was far from satisfactory, primarily due to the paltry penalty for the violators, Mr. Verma said the Act was being revised to impose a stricter penalty. Pointing out that the present minimum wages were less than Rs. 66 in more than 50 per cent of the States, Mr. Verma said efforts would be made to ensure that the revised wages were enforced in all States.

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