(a) whether minimum wages fixed by the Government are not
paid to their labourers by private contractors/companies;
(b) if so, whether most of the Government works are done by
the private agencies and they exploit their own labourers; and
(c) if so, the steps being taken to check such tendencies?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT ( SHRI MUNI LALL )
(a) to (c): The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 provides for
fixation, revision and enforcement of minimum wages to the
workers in the scheduled employments both in Central and the
State spheres. In the Central sphere the officers of the Central
Industrial Relations machinery secure enforcement and in the
State sphere, the State enforcement machineries ensure
implementation of the Act. The officers of these machineries who
are appointed as Inspectors in accordance with the procedure
prescribed in the Act, conduct regular inspections of the
establishments including the contractors and direct the employers
to make payment of shortfall of wages whenever any case of
non-payment or less payment of minimum wages is noticed by them.
There are legal and penal actions provided in the Act against
the defaulting employers.
Further, the provisions of the Contract Labour
(Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, make the contractors
responsible to pay wages to the workers before expiry of the
prescribed period in the presence of the authorised
representatives of the Principal Employers.