1/21/2011 PM rejects NAC's reco on minimum pay…

Fri, Jan 21, 2011 | Updated 10.07AM IST

6 JAN, 2011, 04.49AM IST, RUKMINI SHRINIVASAN,TNN

PM rejects NAC's reco on minimum pay

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shot down the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council's recommendation that the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) workers be paid the minimum wages set by states.

The prime minister, in his December 31 letter to the UPA chairperson, clarified that the wage rate fixed by the central government would be indexed to inflation but
not linked to the Minimum Wage Act.

The PM's letter says that the consensual view that emerged after discussions with the ministries involved was that while NREGS wages should remain delinked from
the Minimum Wage Act , the government will protect a real wage of Rs 100 per day by indexing the wage rate to the Consumer Price Index for agricultural labourers,
from January 1, 2011 onwards.

The base will be reset every five years. A committee under the chairmanship of chief statistician Pronab Sen is working on an index for fixing NREGS wages in the
future, the letter adds.

Members of the Rajasthan-based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan whose pioneering efforts contributed to the passage of the Employment Guarantee Act termed
the PM's decision as a violation of a Constitutional right. ''This represents a threat to the minimum wage structure which is the only buffer that the vulnerable have
against inflation and arbitrary changes,'' Nikhil Dey of the MKSS told TOI. Inflation indexing, which is part of the Minimum Wage Act, will not by itself raise the
wages of all NREGS workers to the minimum wage, he added.

In January 2009, the Centre froze wages to be paid under NREGS at Rs 100 as it was felt that some states tended to increase the minimum wage arbitrarily. High
inflation has led several states to revise their minimum wages and as a result, the minimum wages of 19 states including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala are higher than Rs 100 as of now, but not payable to NREGS workers.

Labour groups in Andhra Pradesh went to the high court which expressed its displeasure and suspended the ministry's notification in AP. The MKSS led by
Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy sat in dharna in Jaipur for 45 days over the issue. The matter was also raised by Roy, economist Jean Dreze and Right To Food
campaigner Harsh Mander in the meetings of the NAC chaired by Sonia.

On November 11, Sonia wrote to the PM attaching an NAC note saying that workers under NREGS are being paid less than the statutory minimum wage. ''This is a
totally unacceptable situation and needs to be corrected at once.'' Sonia had also attached a legal opinion given by additional solicitor general Indira Jaising saying:
''The payment of wage below minimum wage would amount to forced labour.''

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