State may hike minimum wages for garment factory, hotel workers

The State Government is contemplating on increasing the minimum wages for garment factory and hotel workers, Minister of State for Labour P T Parameshwar Naik said on Monday.

Naik told reporters here that his department was planning to hike the present minimum wages for workers in these two verticals as they have been facing lot of hardships.

 “The present minimum wages in the garment industry is Rs 4,700 per month. We are considering at hiking the wages to ensure a proper livlihood for workers. A decision will be taken after having a detailed discussion with the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah,” he said.
The department is also planning to provide some job security measures for those  employed on a contractual basis or employed by agencies that accept outsourcing works. The measures include providing provident fund and Employeess State Insurance (ESI) schemes, he added.

The minister said the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has already identified land for starting residential schools in the 11 municipal corporations in the State to provide proper education to children of construction labourers,
Land acquisition

Land has been identified in Mysore (Thandya Industrial Layout), Shimoga, (Shidlakoppa), Chamrajanagar, Bellary (Honalli), Gulbarga (Nandnur and B K Kangral), Hassan (near Kittur) and Dharwad industrial area (near IIIT).

The total cost of the land acquisition is Rs 85.77 crore. He said children of construction workers, who are Kannadigas, will be given priority. Wards of construction workers who have migrated from other parts of the country will be given admission based on their domicile criteria.

The minister said that the government has already identified 10 lakh construction workers and have registered them. 

The government has made provisions for acquiring land near Doddaballapur (Obedhnahalli) for the proposed Construction Academy which it intends to start at a cost of Rs 200 crore.