Lok Sabha Passes Wage Code Bill to Ensure Minimum Wage, Timely Payment For 50 Crore Workers | Here’s Details

Representatives of trade unions, employers and state governments will form a tripartite committee to fix a floor wage for workers throughout the country.

New Delhi: Lok Sabha passed the Code on Wages Bill, 2019, on Tuesday that will enable the introduction of a minimum wage for every worker and will address the issue regarding delays in payment to the employees.

While moving the Bill for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said that the Wages Code Bill seeks to amend and consolidate the laws relating to wages and bonus and matters connected to it and will benefit 50 crore workers.

Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act and Equal Remuneration Act, the four labour laws has been subsumed under the Wages Code Bill and all the four acts will be repealed once the code is enacted.

Representatives of trade unions, employers and state governments will form a tripartite committee to fix a floor wage for workers throughout the country.

The Bill will also address the problems relating to delay in payments of wages be it on a monthly, weekly or daily basis.

The Code universalises the provisions of minimum wages and timely payment of wages to all employees irrespective of the sector and wage ceiling which is not the case in the Minimum Wages Act and Payment of Wages Act. Both these acts apply on workers below a particular wage ceiling working in scheduled employments only.

The floor wage will be computed based on minimum living conditions, benefiting about 50 crore workers across the country.

At present, there are 12 definitions of wages which have been simplified in the Bill and is expected to reduce litigation and also reduce compliance cost for employers.

The Code on Wages Bill was earlier introduced in Lok Sabha on August 10, 2017, but lapsed after the dissolution of 16th Lok Sabha.

A fresh Bill was drafted after considering the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and other suggestions of the stakeholders.