As a measure to dissuade trade unions from going on strike on September 2, the government has also chose to raise the daily minimum wage for unskilled non-agricultural workers for “C” category areas to Rs 350 from the earlier Rs 112.
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Government will also give bonus at revised rates to central government employees for 2 years, said FM Arun Jaitley.
Some 33 lakh employees of the central government had a reason to cheer on Tuesday with the government announcing their annual bonus that has been pending for two years.
The announcement comes ahead of the nationwide bandh announced by the 10 central trade unions on September 2.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called an emergency meet of Jaitley, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Power Minister Piyush Goyal to discuss offers which could be made to unions to persuade them to cancel Friday’s shutdown, which is meant to close banks, government offices and factories across the country.
The Bonus Amendment Act will be implemented strictly, Jaitley said at the press conference on charter of demands of Central Trade Unions. He also added that the government has not been able to adhere to all the 12 demands raised by unions. The issues have been taken up by inter-ministerial committee haded by the finance minister. Earlier, minister of state for labour and employment had held meetings with central trade union leaders wherein detailed discussions were held in regard to their charter of demands.
On the opposition to the government’s plans to merge associate banks of SBI with the parent bank, Jaitley said “the merger is not subject of trade unions”. Errant contractors will face appropriate action for any violation, he warned.
The CTUs had requested Dattatreya to hold a meeting with the five-member panel of ministers dealing with labour issues to look into their demands in July this year.
“We have had meeting with trade unions individually and collectively”.
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The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), a major union linked to the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has decided not to participate in the strike, the report said. The CTUs also objected to the government’s decision of foreign investment, especially in the pharmaceutical and defence sectors, on grounds of threat to national security.
