Librarians to now get minimum wages

The State government has decided to pay minimum wages fixed by the government to librarians working in urban local bodies and gram panchayats, instead of the honorarium paid all these years.

This was announced in a gazette notification issued on May 22.

Shramajeevigala Vedike president Chandrasekhar Hiremath, who spearheaded the agitation for minimum wages, told presspersons here on Wednesday that the decision of the State government was a victory for the six-year long struggle of the 5,700-plus librarians working in gram panchayats.

The government, while appointing the librarians, had fixed a honorarium of Rs. 2,800 per month and repeated appeals to bring them under the Minimum Wages Act had fallen on deaf ears. Mr. Hiremath said that despite the Labour Department directing department libraries to extend minimum wages, they continued to ignore the directions.

Prosecuted

In a few districts, the Labour Department had prosecuted the library department for not implementing its directions.

He thanked the newly-appointed chairperson of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board, Yogeshwari Vijay, for considering the plea of librarians.

The 5,766 librarians working in gram panchayats in the State would now be eligible to get a minimum wage of Rs. 8,320 per month, as per the gazette notification.