In a move to create digital and less-cash economy, the Lok Sabha has passed the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017, under which specified industrial units will have to pay salaries and wages to workers solely via cheque or by electronic transfer to their bank. According to this bill, there is no need to get the consent of the workers to pay through cheques or through transfer in bank account.
The new Payment of Wages bill will also ensure that the other benefits like ESI, PF are also properly been passed onto the workers. Once the bill becomes law, it will also repeal the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Ordinance 2016, which was promulgated on December 28, 2016 and it replaces the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 15, 2016.
The amendment enables the Centre as well as state governments to notify industries where employers shall have pay wages either through cheque or crediting that into workers’ bank accounts. At present, the Act covers all those employees in certain categories of establishments whose wage do not exceed Rs 18,000 per month.
Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya hailed the initiative aimed at promoting the welfare of workers and said that the new legislation will help check exploitation of workers engaged in un-organised sectors and they will get exact salaries in their bank accounts.