Even as the Left Front government in Bengal have pledged itself to champion the cause of labourers in the country, the number of companies in the state who deny minimum wages to its workers has increased manifold in the last few years. In 2006, 61 companies were fined for denying minimum wages to its workers which came down to 42 in 2007. But again in 2008 the number increased to 223...
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NREGA wages to be tied to inflation
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the rural development ministry to develop an index for fixing and revising wages under rural job scheme NREGA. The move follows a letter from Sonia Gandhi requesting Singh to find a way to ensure workers under the scheme are paid the minimum wages across the country. The minimum wages in several states, such as Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Karnataka, are now higher than...
More »Manmohan favours hike in MNREGA wages by K Balchand
Turns down Sonia's proposal for statutory minimum wages The battle for statutory minimum wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) seems to be on a slippery ground with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicating that the government could at best cover inflation-induced erosion of wages. In his December 31, 2010 letter, Dr. Singh has turned down the proposal of National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi to pay MNREGA workers...
More »PM rejects NAC's recommendation on minimum pay by Rukmini Shrinivasan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shot down the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council's recommendation that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) workers be paid the minimum wages set by states. The prime minister, in his December 31 letter to the UPA chairperson, clarified that the wage rate fixed by the central government would be indexed to inflation but not linked to the Minimum Wage Act. The PM's letter says...
More »NREG wage hike is stuck because NAC fighting PMO by Ravish Tiwari
A notification expected on January 1 to hike wages of workers under the national job guarantee scheme — to counter inflation — is stuck because of pressure from National Advisory Council activists who want this hike to be linked to the Minimum Wages Act. The Rural Development Ministry was slated to notify revised NREGS wages indexing it to the Consumer Price Index for agricultural labourers (CPI-AL) with April 2009 as the...
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