'No court stay on minimum wages order'

Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday clarified that there was "no stay" by the Delhi High Court on the minimum wages order and it was "very much in place" and had been implemented in 201 departments of the city government.

Talking to reporters, Rai said the Delhi government – in March this year – had notified its order to increase the minimum wages in the city by 37 per cent after taking approval from the Lieutenant Governor.

However, later the Apex Chamber of Commerce approached the Delhi High Court against the government order. "Court has accepted the application of Apex Chamber of Commerce, along with several others, and started hearing on that. But there has been no stay on the Delhi government's minimum wage order," Rai clarified.

He further said that there were 202 departments of Delhi government where contract labourers were engaged in various works and the minimum wages order has been effectively implemented in 201 such departments. "Health is the only department from where the complaints have come that the minimum wages order is not being implemented properly. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written a warning letter to the department to implement the minimum wages order in its true spirit," the Labour Minister said.

Rai also said that to spread awareness about enhanced minimum wages among the labourers and the companies, the government will launch a month long "minimum wages awareness campaign" from June 13.

For monitoring the implementation of the order, the government will set up "wage monitoring task force" under which 20 teams would be formed comprising departmental officers and civil defence volunteers.

Rai also announced that the government has increased dearness allowance (DA) of minimum wages in April this year, which would further increase the minimum wages for labourers at least by Rs 234. He said that the DA for unskilled labourers was increased by Rs 234, for semi-skilled by Rs 260 and for skilled by Rs 286.

The Delhi government in March had increased minimum wages from Rs 9,724 to Rs 13,350 a month for unskilled labourers, from Rs 10,764 to Rs 14,698 for semi-skilled labourers and from Rs 11,830 to Rs 16,182 for skilled labourers.

"With the increase in DA, the new minimum wages in Delhi will be Rs 13,584 for unskilled labourers, Rs 14,958 for semi-skilled labourers and Rs 16,468 for skilled labourers," Rai said.