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THE LOK Sabha on Tuesday passed the Wages Code Bill, seeking to pave the way for the introduction of minimum wage for workers besides addressing issues like delay in payments.
The Code on Wages Bill, 2019, which seeks to amend and consolidate the laws relating to wages and bonus and matters, will benefit 50 crore workers, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said, terming the Bill as a “historic step”. He said after the Bill becomes law “minimum wage would become a right of every worker”, although some of the Opposition members pointed out that the Bill did not have “anything new”.
The Bill that was passed by voice vote subsumes four labour laws — Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act and Equal Remuneration Act. After its enactment, all these four Acts would be repealed.
“During the making of the Bill we consulted workers and they were delighted that we were taking up the issues that were important to them,” Gangwar said.
The Bill mandates that the tripartite committee comprising representatives of trade unions, employers and state government would fix a floor wage for workers throughout the country, Gangwar said.
“The Bill will effectively address the problems relating to delay in payment of wages whether on monthly, weekly or daily basis,” he said.
At present there are 12 definitions of wages in the different labour laws leading to litigation besides difficulty in its implementation. The definition has been simplified in the Bill and is expected to reduce litigation and also reduce compliance cost for employers.
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