Gautam Deb nominated as Chief of Minimum Wages Advisory Board

SILIGURI: With the aim of providing minimum wages to the unorganised workers, the Labour Department of the State Government had constituted the ‘West Bengal Minimum Wages Advisory Board’. Gautam Deb, the Mayor of Siliguri, has been nominated the Chairman of this board.

The administration has already issued a notification in this regard. A meeting of the committee will be held in the first week of April.

Incidentally the trade unions have been demanding the implementation of minimum wages in the tea gardens. The minimum wage advisory board was constituted by the West Bengal Government in 2015 to look into the issue.

“I am overwhelmed to be given such a big responsibility. Hopefully, I can meet the expectations of the government,” said Gautam Deb, the newly appointed Chairman.

Earlier Moloy Ghatak, Law Minister, Government of West Bengal had stated: “If the board on minimum wages recommends a minimum wage amount, it will not take us 24 hours to come out with a notification and implement it. The committee has representation of all tea trade unions including the opposition trade unions along with the Management. Till now the sides have not been able to come up with an amount agreeable to both the sides despite multiple rounds of meetings.”

Apart from the Chairman, Ritabrata Banerjee, the State president of Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress along with MLAs and officials of various government departments are the members of the board along with the representatives of Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). A total of 24 members are there in the committee. “Minister Moloy Ghatak had called me. A meeting will be held soon,” the Chairman added.