Following marathon negotiations, the government on Thursday announced that it had given an assurance to central trade unions on the introduction of legislation for making formula-based minimum wages mandatory and applicable to all employees across the country, including a proposal for sector-specific minimum wages for industrial workers.
An official release said the Centre had also given an assurance that the wage eligibility limit and calculation ceiling used for the purpose of determining bonus would be doubled. Whereas the per-month wage eligibility limit is proposed to be hiked from Rs.10,000 to Rs.21,000, the calculation ceiling is to go up from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 7,000.
In view of the deliberations concluded, trade unions have agreed to consider the Centre’s appeal to them to review the proposed call for strike on September 2, 2015, the release said.
The Centre is keen to avert the nationwide and industry-wide strike called by the unions in view of its ambitious agenda for labour reforms that are key to its plans for pushing the economy on to double-digit growth. The government’s labour reform plans are also being keenly watched by investors — both domestic and global.
The Centre assured the unions that all labour law reforms would be done with due discussions and tripartite consultations, the release said.
The discussions with the unions were largely on 12 demands they put forth. Five Ministers — Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Department of Personnel & Training Jitendra Singh and Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goel — held the discussions on behalf of the Centre. A few weeks earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held discussions with the unions.
