Labourers in Sikkim to get four-tier daily minimum wages

Gangtok, Apr 4 (UNI) A four-tier pay package of minimum daily wages between Rs 100 and Rs 150 has been sanctioned by the state cabinet for the labourers and Muster Roll (MR) employees depending on their skill.

The cabinet on Wednesday passed the proposal to revise the minimum rates of wages for different categories of workers employed in the schedule employment.

It is expected to be implemented with retrospective effect from April 1 after a government notification to that effect is issued.

Under this arrangment, a labourer (private or government) and MR employees are gauranteed a daily wage of Rs 100.

This bid to ensure more economic stability by the government for the labour force in the state calls more accountability and capacity building from the beneficiaries as the minimum daily wages ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 150 is directly proportionate to skill.

The slabs are Rs 100 (unskilled), Rs 115 (skilled), Rs 135 (semi-skilled) and Rs 150 (highly skilled), said P W Rinzing, additional secretary, state labour department.

The labour department will be having a look on the arrangements of the other states and will indentify under which category a labourer falls.

'' The state labour department will indentify the labourers' categories,'' said Mr Rinzing.

At the same time, the fifteen per cent in minimum daily wages from the earlier Rs 85 makes the labourers in Sikkim one of the highest paid in the nation.

Although the announcement for Rs 100 minimum daily wages had been made last year, there was a delay due to formalities.

About 4,000 workers are engaged in medium and micro industries in the state besides a large number of Muster Roll employees employed with the state government.

Meanwhile, the state labour department is also conducting registration of labourers in the state for record and security purposes under public order. We have started the registration exercise in all the four districts of the state, siad Mr.Ringzing.

Under this drive, a photo identity card will be provided to the labourers along with data of their present and permanent addresses.

This is being done in public interest, said Mr Rinzing.

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