Experts push for revision of minimum wages

The organised workforce and trade unions need to be more proactive to espouse the cause of increasing and rightfully implementing minimum wages in the state, noted a panel that convened at the MD Harigovind Memorial Lecture in the city on Sunday. 

The panel, comprising labour law experts, urged for wages to be localised as opposed to a statewide or national minimum wage. 

Minimum wages haven’t been satisfactorily increased or implemented due to political corruption, said Karnataka High Court senior advocate S N Murthy, who added that “it is the need of the hour for trade unions to take to the streets and agitate for minimum wages." 

Prof Babu Mathew from the Centre for Labour Studies, National Law School of India University, noted that ensuring minimum wages was a challenge but unions needed to also fight for fair wages above minimum wages to be paid to all workers. 

Vijay Bhaskar D A, General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, Karnataka, said that the government must study the impact of inflation and revise the minimum wages. "We demand that every earning individual who works in any of the identified schedules and supports three units (a spouse and two children) in Bengaluru needs to earn Rs 31,500 per month as minimum wage,” he said. 

He added that while the state labour department has agreed to conduct a scientific study of inflation and consider the revision of minimum wages in the state, it remains to be seen whether those revised wages will be adequate to support families according to the cost of living and general expenses in cities and towns across the state.