Trade unions rejecting the government announcement of 42 percent minimum wage hike and a two-year bonus for unskilled non-farm workers of the central government to Rs 350 a day, from the current Rs 246, have said that they would go ahead with nation-wide strike on September 2, terming these announcements as “completely inadequate”.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the wake of mass strike call has announced a hike in the minimum wage for unskilled non-agricultural workers in central public sector units for Rs. 350 a day. Calculated monthly, the minimum wage for unskilled worker comes out to be near Rs. 9,100 per month, but is way below the unions' demand of Rs 18,000 a month. The unions had demanded Rs 15,000 as minimum monthly income for daily wagers but the demand was revised after the government accepted the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.
The trade unions, demanding minimum monthly wage of Rs 18,000 per month or Rs 692 a day and base pension of Rs 3,000 a month, were not impressed by the government's move and said they would go ahead with the day-long general strike and demanded that they should enact a law to fix minimum (universal) wage. Meanwhile, the Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has said that an amendment in the Minimum Wage Act is required for fixing a universal minimum wage and an initiative has been taken in this direction. The strike call is being supported by almost all major labour unions except RSS-affiliated BMS, and may impact all major services including banking, insurance services, power supplies and coal mining.