Payment of Minimum Wages for Contract Jobs

The Central Government has enacted the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 to regulate the employment of contract labour in certain establishments and to provide for its abolition in certain circumstances and for matters connected therewith. A well-established Central Industrial Relations Machinery (CIRM) is in place to enforce various labour laws in Central Sphere including the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970. The country-wide network of Dy. Chief Labour Commissioners and Regional Labour Commissioners under the control of Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) is mandated to settle the complaints/claims in regard to grievances/complaints arising out of the enforcement of various labour laws. Besides, a grievance redressal mechanism exists in the States/UTs in respect of the grievances pertaining to establishment coming under the State Sphere.

The contractual workers are being paid the minimum wages covered under Scheduled Employment at the rate fixed according to the nature of work as provided under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. If minimum wages are not paid to the workers claim applications are filed within the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act before the authority under Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

The details of enforcement in respect of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948  for the year 2015-16 is  enlisted.

This information was given by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment, in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.