Factsheet-4
Under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both Central and State Governments are the appropriate Governments to fix and revise minimum wages in the scheduled employments under their respective jurisdictions.
In case of Central sphere, any Scheduled employment carried on by or under the authority of the Central Government or a railway administration, or in relation to a mine, oil-field or major port, or any corporation established by a Central Act, the Central Government is the appropriate Government while in relation to any other Scheduled employment, the State Government is the appropriate Government.
The Act is applicable only for those employments, which are notified and included in the schedule of the Act by the appropriate Governments.
There are 45 scheduled employments in the Central Sphere and 1222 employments in the State sphere.
The scheduled employments in the Central Sphere fall under the broad categories of Agriculture, Mines, Construction including laying of cables and Railways. The employment pertaining to Security Services is a recent addition in the schedule of Central Sphere.
The employments Agriculture, Construction and Security Services are under the jurisdiction of both Central and State Governments. So far as agriculture is concerned, the employment largely falls in the State jurisdiction but a small chunk of the employment like agricultural farms under the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Defence etc. including Military Farms, National Seeds Corporation falls in the Central jurisdiction. So far as other employments are concerned, the jurisdiction falls under the appropriate Government depending upon the organization in which these activities are carried out.
According to the Act, the appropriate Governments review/revise the minimum wages in the scheduled employments under their respective jurisdictions at an interval not exceeding five years. In certain cases minimum wages include variable dearness allowances (VDA), which is reviewed/revised periodically twice a year effective April and October.
The rates of minimum wages for unskilled agricultural workers in the Central spheres is from Rs. 102.00 to Rs. 114.00 with effect from June 16, 2005. In case of States/UTs it varies from Rs. 110.10 (Delhi) to Rs. 39.87 (Arunachal Pradesh Area I). Under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both the Central and State Governments are the appropriate Governments to implement provisions of the Act.
The enforcement of the Act is secured both at the Central and State level. In the Central Sphere, the implementation is secured through the officers of the Central Industrial Relations Machinery, while at the State level, the responsibility of the enforcement lies with the respective State enforcement machinery. The officers of both these machinaries are appointed as Inspectors under the statutory provisions of the Act. They conduct regular inspections and advise the employers to make payment of short fall of wages whenever they come across any case of non-payment or less payment of wages with or without compensation based on the merit. In case of non-adherence to the advice, there are legal and penal actions against the defaulting employers.
Though the concept of a uniform national minimum wage has been discussed in various fora over the years, the same has not been conceived. The fixation of minimum wages depends upon various factors like Socio-economic and agro-climatic conditions, prices of essential commodities, paying capacity and the local factors influencing the wage rate. Therefore, there is disparity in the minimum wages throughout the country. In the absence of a uniform national minimum wage, national floor level wage was introduced at Rs. 35/- per day in 1996 based on the recommendations of the NCRL and subsequent increase in price level. The floor level wage was last revised to Rs. 45/- w.e.f. 30.11.99 keeping in view the increase in Consumer Price Index.
MLD:LK:fact-4(min .wages act)(19.10.05)
(Release ID :17204)