With the process of revising wages for scheduled employment covered under the Minimum Wages Act having commenced, all eyes are now on the Karnataka government which has to agree on the quantum of wage revision. The joint trade unions — based on present-day prices — have demanded a minimum wage of ₹31,566 for unskilled workers in zone 1 comprising eight cities, including Bengaluru. This proposal, however, has been opposed by employers.
The calculations by the trade unions came after the State government offered to increase minimum wages by an average 10% for unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, and high skilled workers in eight scheduled employments across four employment zones in the State for which the process of revision is now in the final stages. Now, the process of revision has begun for workers in sectors such as automobile, fisheries, veneer, and foundries.
In the preliminary notification placed before the Minimum Wages Advisory Board, where discussions have taken place, the government has proposed an increase varying from as low as 1.66% for unskilled workers in fisheries sector to 26.5% in pottery, ceramics, stoneware, and other allied products.
The trade union calculations follow the government stand in the advisory board that the wage revision will be fixed without conducting field-level surveys to ascertain price rise, unlike the last time. The AICCTU, HMS, AIUTUC, INTUC, HMKP, and AITUC have signed the petition submitted to the board on June 21.
The government has cited elaborate process, lack of manpower to carry out such surveys, COVID-19 pandemic and anticipated implementation of four Labour Code as the reason. Though trade unions accuse the government of conducting a survey in 2016 that was “flawed”, before the last revision, the government had conducted surveys to collect data on food, clothing, and shelter in 16 locations across the State to understand price rise and impact.
Defending the demand, M. Sathyanand, a member on the board representing the AITUC, said, “We are demanding need-based wages as mandated by the law. The calculations are based on the Supreme Court judgment in the Reptakos Brett case in 1992 in which norms have been fixed.” He said, “The earlier revision was flawed. For example, while the 2019-2021 National Family Health survey shows that 85% of men and 77% of women in Karnataka consume meat, the food cost was calculated based on a vegetarian diet. Despite more women joining the workforce, they are still calculated as 0.8 of the consumption unit while man is taken as 1. There is a clear gender bias.”
He also pointed out that the cost of mobile phones also has to be included as phones are now mandatory in schemes such as Aadhaar and Jan Dhan Yojana. While the consumption unit of three, including a couple and two children below 14 years, is considered to calculate wages, he pointed out to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, that mandates the children to take care of parents, which is not considered in the calculations.
Employers’ stand
On the other hand, the employers have indicated that they were ready for an average hike of 5% since dearness allowance is being given annually, and have also demanded deferring of the revision in the light of the pandemic and the new Labour Code coming in.
President of the Karnataka Employers Association B.C. Prabhakar argued that industries could move away from Karnataka since the minimum wages were already high. “Every State is claiming to be following the formula passed by the Indian Labour Conference but there are glaring differences between the States. Minimum wages fixed in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is lesser than that in Karnataka,” he said. He said that trade unions were speaking “theoretically”. “They have taken Bengaluru figures that cannot be accepted since the rates have to be taken in other centres also,” he said. He also pointed out that industries are already struggling to pay wages due to pandemic-induced economic problems.
Labour Commissioner Akram Pasha was not available for comments.
CITU left out of process
The Karnataka government, while forming the Minimum Wages Advisory Board, has left out the Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU), an important trade union in the State, raising eyebrows. All other trade unions, including AITUC, INTUC, HMS, AIUTUC, HMKP, and AICCTU, are part of the consultative process in the revision of the minimum wages. Sources in the trade union movement said they were shocked to notice the absence of the CITU in the board.
CITU State secretary K. Mahantesh said a protest letter had been given against the government for dropping the union from the Karnataka Labour Welfare Board and the Minimum Wages Advisory Board. “ Since the CITU was responsible for unearthing irregularities in the Labour Department, we have been targeted,” he alleged.
