Fixed Minimum Wages for Workers
The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 provides for both the Central and State Governments as the appropriate Governments to fix, review and revise the minimum wages of the workers employed in the scheduled employments under their respective jurisdictions. Presently, there are 45 scheduled employments in the Central Sphere while in the State Sphere the number of such employments is 1709.
The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 is implemented by the Centre as well as the States in respect of their respective jurisdiction. In the Central Sphere, the enforcement is secured through the Inspecting Officers of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) commonly designated as Central Industrial Relations Machinery (CIRM), the compliance in the State sphere is ensured through the State Enforcement Machinery. They conduct regular inspections and in the event of detection of any case of non-payment or under-payment of minimum wages, they advise the employers to make payment of the shortfall of wages. In case of non-compliance, penal provisions against the defaulting employers are invoked. Details of enforcement of Minimum Wages Act, 1948 during 2014-15, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 (upto December, 2016) are given below.
| S .No. | Particulars | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17(upto Dec., 2016) |
| 1 | No. of Inspections Conducted | 6582 | 9803 | 5732 |
| 2 | No. of Irregularities detected | 68747 | 75938 | 39837 |
| 3 | No. Irregularities Rectified | 87809 | 46467 | 40541 |
| 4 | No. of Prosecutions Launched | 3774 | 1549 | 1636 |
| 5 | No. of Convictions | 2782 | 1476 | 1386 |
Claim cases under Minimum Wages Act
| YEAR | CLAIMS | AMOUNT AWARDED (in Rs.) | ||||
| B/F | FILED | DECIDED | AWARDED | RECOVERERD | PAID TO WORKES | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 2013-14 | 3855 | 3000 | 2838 | 123030072 | 50794115 | 33439937 |
| 2014-15 | 3980 | 2167 | 248 | 59856881 | 35892244 | 30526714 |
| 2015-16 | 3672 | 743 | 1796 | 66654417 | 44128036 | 34879425 |
| 2016-17(upto Dec., 2016) | 2610 | 719 | 827 | 74937048 | 41241934 | 38196925 |
This information was given by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (IC) for Labour and Employment, in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
Source : PIB