Trade unions stick to Sept 2 strike, reject govt’s wage hike

New Delhi, August 30  

Trade unions on Tuesday said they would go ahead with nation-wide strike on September 2, rejecting as “completely inadequate” the government’s 42 per cent hike in minimum wage to Rs 350 per day.

“The government’s minimum wage announcement is completely inadequate. The strike stands and we demand they should enact a law to fix minimum (universal) wage,” All India Trade Union Congress General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of labour-friendly measures including hiking of minimum wage to Rs 350 a day for unskilled non-agricultural workers for ‘C’ category areas in central sphere.

Calculated monthly, it comes to Rs 9,100 minimum income (for 26 days) which is way below the unions’ demand of Rs 18,000. Initially, the unions had demanded Rs 15,000 as minimum monthly income for daily wagers but the demand was revised after the government accepted the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

Asked whether this will be a benchmark wage for the entire country, Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal said that this was for workers in central sphere and states could fix a minimum wage lower or higher than this rate.

Explaining further, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said an amendment in the Minimum Wage Act was required for fixing a universal minimum wage and an initiative had been taken in this direction.

“Finance Minister’s statement clearly shows that the government has not considered any of the demands in our 12-point charter. The unions have no other alternative but to fight for their rights,” Indian National Trade Union Congress Vice-President Ashok Singh said.

However, RSS affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh has lauded the government’s announcements and decided to abstain from the general strike on September 2.

“We welcome it and are satisfied by the increase in minimum wages. BMS will not participate in the strike,” BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said. — PTI