States free to fix minimum wages for workers: MoS Shobha Karandlaje in Lok Sabha

The Centre on Monday said the state governments were free to fix, review and revise the minimum rate of wages for establishments falling under their respective jurisdiction.Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Shobha Karandlaje, Minister of State for Ministry of Labour and Employment, said provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, had been rationalised and subsumed under the Code on Wages-2019, which were made effective from November 21 last year.

She said the new Act aims to make the applicability of minimum wages universal across all sectors and ensure that there was no gender discrimination in workplace.

She said, “The Code on Wages, 2019, empowers both central and state governments as appropriate governments to fix, review and revise the minimum rate of wages for the establishments falling under their respective jurisdiction.”

“With a view to reduce regional and sectoral wage disparities, the Code on Wages, 2019, makes the floor wage a statutory provision. It further stipulates that the minimum rates of wages fixed by the appropriate governments shall not be less than the floor wage,” she added.

The minister further said the Centre had also enacted the Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act, 1979, to safeguard the interests of migrant workers.

“This Act has now been subsumed in the Occupational Safety,

Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020. The OSH Code provides for decent working conditions, minimum wages, grievance redressal mechanisms, protection from abuse and exploitation, enhancement of skills and social security to all categories of workers, including construction and mining sector workers,” she added.