Minimum wages: AAP govt to adopt Centre policy

New Delhi: The Delhi government will adopt the Centre’s minimum wages scheme after the high court quashed its notification on the matter as “flawed”, Delhi labour minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday.

“The Centre’s scheme on minimum wages was launched in April. It will ensure higher wages than what the Delhi government’s scheme would have provided,” Mr Rai told the media after a meeting with the trade union leaders.

“Under the Central scheme, skilled workers will get approximately Rs 17,400 per month as against Rs 16,800 under the Delhi government scheme,” the labour minister said, adding, “Unskilled workers will get Rs 14,300 compared to Rs 13,800 under the Delhi government’s scheme.”

The Delhi high court, on Saturday, had struck down the March notification on higher minimum wages for workers in Delhi as “unconstitutional”.

“The constitution of the committee (on the matter) was completely flawed and its advice was not based on relevant material. It suffers from non-application of mind,” the bench said.

Mr Rai also said that the Arvind Kejriwal government will form a committee with twice the number of representatives on the issue.

“After the committee is formed and the scheme finalised by the Delhi government, we will roll out the scheme for two months and take feedback from the public,” the minister said.

Earlier, the labour minister had said that the Delhi government will move the Supreme Court against the high court judgment. He also said that he will hold a meeting on August 14 with the trade unions to discuss further course of action.

The high court order followed several PILs, including one filed by Social Jurist, a civil rights group which pleaded that the hike in wages was unreasonably low and as such violated the workers’ fundamental right to life.

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