Minimum wages Act, 1948 extends to the whole of India. The main object of the act is to provide minimum wages to the persons employed in ‘Scheduled Employments’.
The capacity of an employer to pay minimum wages is not taken into consideration as decided in U. Unichoy v State of Kerala. The contention of Minimum wages Act being violative of Article 19(1)(g) was dismissed in Bijoy Cotton Mills v. the State of Ajmer.
[Suggested Read: Public Interest Litigation – How To Guide for PILs in India]
According to Section 3, for Part I of the Scheduled employment, minimum wages for the entire state have to be fixed, however, the rates fixed need not be uniform. For Part II of the Scheduled Employment wages for the entire state may not be fixed. According to Section 3(1)(b) the minimum wages must be revised not exceeding an interval of five years, however, they can be revised before the expiry of five years as well. The Appropriate Government fixes minimum wages using Committee Method or Notification Method.
- Under this Act, the employees are defined as those who are employed for skilled or unskilled manual or clerical work in “scheduled employment”. Apart from this, the unorganised sector is also included in this provision.
- The Act is also applicable to any “Outworker” who have been given work and anyone declared as an employee by the government
- The employer is bound to pay the employee he has hired at a rate not less than the minimum wage fixed by the government for that scheduled employment.
- Section 3 of the act also provides that the Central or state government concerned needs to fix the rate of wages with no discrimination based on gender.
- The punishment for underpaying the employee is up to 6 months imprisonment or fine up to Rs. 500 to the employer.
[Suggested Read: The Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 (CLRA) – Brief Notes]
