AIUTUC calls for rapid implementation of revised minimal wages

The All India United Commerce Union Centre (AIUTUC) on Thursday organised a district-level protest in entrance of the Deputy Commissioner’s workplace in Kalaburagi, demanding the rapid implementation of the revised minimal wages for contract staff and urging the State authorities to reject any proposal to maintain the ultimate minimal wage notification issued on Might 22, 2026, in abeyance.

Contract staff employed in numerous authorities departments, native our bodies, public sector undertakings, non-public institutions, wind vitality and photo voltaic vitality firms participated within the demonstration. After the protest, the agitators submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister D.Okay. Shivakumar via the Deputy Commissioner.

The protesters alleged that the reported proposal by the Finance Division to droop the implementation of the revised minimal wages was anti-worker, unconstitutional and opposite to the provisions of the Minimal Wages Act. They contended that the problem was not confined to any explicit division, however involved lakhs of contract staff throughout Karnataka whose livelihood and statutory rights relied on the well timed implementation of the revised wage construction.

The memorandum identified that though the minimal wages have been due for revision in 2021, the notification was issued solely in Might 2026 after a delay of almost 5 years. Any additional postponement, it stated, would inflict extra hardship on staff who had already been ready for almost a decade for the revision.

The AIUTUC maintained that the Karnataka Excessive Court docket had declined to grant any interim keep on the revised minimal wage notification regardless of petitions filed by employers’ associations. Below such circumstances, the memorandum argued, the Finance Division couldn’t administratively maintain the notification in abeyance, as such a transfer would quantity to interference with the judicial course of.

The employees additionally contended that the Minimal Wages Act, 1948, doesn’t empower any division to droop a closing notification as soon as it has been issued. They identified that a number of authorities departments had already begun paying the revised wages and that withdrawing the notification now would create administrative confusion, industrial unrest and grave injustice to staff.

Rejecting the argument that larger wages would pressure industries to shift out of Karnataka, the protesters stated sectors corresponding to building, safety companies, housekeeping, sanitation, municipal companies, authorities outsourcing, wind vitality and photo voltaic vitality have been location-specific and couldn’t be relocated to different States merely due to revised wage charges.

The memorandum additionally said that monetary constraints couldn’t be cited as a legitimate purpose for denying minimal wages, referring to Supreme Court docket rulings which held that employers, together with governments, have been legally sure to pay statutory minimal wages irrespective of economic difficulties. It additionally argued that withholding the revised wages would violate Articles 21 and 23 of the Structure in addition to the spirit of ILO Conference No. 131 on minimal wage fixing.

The AIUTUC demanded that the State authorities instantly reject the proposal to droop the Might 22 notification, implement the revised minimal wages in all authorities departments, boards, firms, native our bodies, non-public institutions and outsourcing businesses, launch extra funds required for implementation, clear wage arrears, strengthen enforcement by the Labour Division via inspections and consciousness drives, provoke stringent motion towards employers violating the regulation and strongly oppose any recent makes an attempt to acquire a keep towards the notification earlier than the Excessive Court docket.

Labour leaders Raghavendra M.G., S.M. Sharma, Santosh Kumar Hirave, Sharanu Herur, Basavaraj Hulgol, Sharanamma Kattimani, Pavan Kumar Benakanalli, Mallinath Patil, Santosh Kumar Doddamani, Isamma Nalwar and others participated within the agitation.