Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya has said the government was looking into the demand for raising minimum wage in the unorganised sector to Rs 15,000 and a consensus was yet to be reached in the tripartite negotiations which are in progress.
“The workers’ demand is justified as the current wages are not enough to meet their daily expenses. They deserved to be given ‘fair wages’ commensurate with the steep increase in cost of living”, he observed.
Speaking to media persons at the BJP State office here on Monday, Mr. Dattatreya said the government was also contemplating extending Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) facilities to workers in unorganised sector and provide other social security benefits.
UWIN (Unorganised Workers’ Identification Number) cards would be issued to the workers soon for providing the benefits.
Labour Identification Numbers (LIN) given to employers helped Department of Labour and Employment in monitoring the implementation of laws governing the workers’ welfare.
The Shram Suvidha portal of Ministry of Labour and Employment facilitated effective administration of the slew of laws.
Mr. Dattatreya said there were about 43 crore workers in the unorganised sector and a majority of them were unskilled. For instance, only eight per cent of the 4.30 crore workers in construction industry possessed the requisite skills. Due emphasis has therefore been laid on skill development.
For taking care of the health of workers in unorganised sector, super-specialty hospitals were being built in all the States under the aegis of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the Ministry was prepared to sanction one for A.P provided the State government showed 100 acres for the project.
The demand for raising minimum wage to Rs 15,000 a month in the urorganised sector is justified, he says
