Minimum wages to be notified on November 1

NEW DELHI: The labour ministry plans to notify minimum wages on November 1, a move that will benefit all class of workers including agricultural labourers who will see a jump of over 100% in daily wages.

The ministry will also move an amendment to the Minimum Wage Act to make the minimum wages universal, said labour minister Dattatreya.

Currently the minimum wages notified by the labour ministry are only advisory to the states. According to Dattatreya, the new minimum wages notified will enhance wages of unskilled agricultural labour in C-class towns to Rs 350 per day in the central sphere.

So far there has been no minimum wage for agricultural labourers in the country while the daily wage for this category of workers has stood at a mere Rs 160 per day.

The Centre had on August 1 increased minimum wage of non-agricultural workers 42% and announced revised bonus for central employees for two years in a bid to discourage trade unions from going ahead with a proposed strike on September 2. However, in the absence of any concrete assurance from the government, the unions went ahead with the strike.