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Centre, State lock horns over working hours

BERHAMPUR: The Central Rural Development Ministry clarified to the State government that the wages of unskilled labour employed under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is related to eight hours work with one hour rest.

It may be noted that the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to Union Minister of Rural Development, Raghuvansh Prasad in which the Chief Minister had apprehended that under NREGA the working hours of labourers may reach nine hours or more with intermittent breaks. The Chief Minister had felt it would lead to hardship of labourers during summer months.

Clarifying this through a press note on Friday, the Minister of State for Rural Development, Chandrasekhar Sahu said at present wages under NREGA were being paid under Minimum Wages Act 1948 as notified for agricultural labourers. He added that excluding one hour for rest, the working hours for an unskilled labourer under NREGA was eight hours and not more than that.

Mr. Sahu also described why this recent misunderstanding had occurred. This misunderstanding was also a point of discussion at a convention of Rural Development Secretaries of all States of country which was held in New Delhi in the recent past. The secretaries had pointed out that as per NREGA, the schedule of rates of wages for unskilled labourers shall be so fixed that a person working for seven hours would earn a wage equal to the wage rate. But the Minimum Wage (Central) Rules 1950 formulated under the Minimum Wages Act 1948 and the State’s Minimum Wages Act 1940 Section 3, still says the wage is fixed as per the daily working hours of nine.

According to Mr. Sahu all rural secretaries attending the convention agreed that this anomaly should be amended and the NREGA provisions should be amended in accordance with the Minimum Wages Act.

Union Minister Mr. Sahu said the discrepancy sited by the secretaries was being taken care of by the ministry. He also informed that all notification related to the wages rate of NREGA were being drafted in consultation with Central Ministry of Law & Justice and Central Labour Ministry.

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