Port Blair, Dec 26: B. Chandrachoodan, General Secretary has demanded Immediate Revision of Minimum Wages to Workers.
In his letter addressed to the Lt Governor, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he mentioned that the whole country is celebrating the Good Governance Day today (25.12.2023), reminding the civil servants of the need to have a robust governance and accountability towards the people, CITU, Andaman & Nicobar State Committee is constrained to bring to your kind notice an instance of failed good governance in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. We would like to place before you the unjustified and unacceptable delay on the part of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration to revise the minimum wages for scheduled employment in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Minimum Wages was last revised in 2017, with effect from 1st January, 2018 for a period of five years. The 5-year period, as per the provisions of Minimum Wages Act, 1948, was over on 31st December, 2022 and the revised rates of minimum wages should have been implemented from 1st January, 2023.
He added that, CITU has been demanding revision of minimum wages since 2022 and it was only after the continuous persuasion and efforts that a Minimum Wages Advisory Committee was formed. After one or two sittings, the Chairman of the Advisory Committee submitted a proposal to the Administration sometime during July, 2023. Since then, the concerned officials in the Administration are sitting over the file while the CITU has been continuously writing letters to you and the concerned officers in the Administration, without any positive result. It is regrettable to say that the Administration intentionally delayed the process of revision of Minimum Wages for the last more than one year.
Also he said, Thousands of workers working in the private sector and government sector (except those who are on 1/30th of pay plus DA pattern) are denied their rightful benefit of enhanced minimum wages for the last one year due to the callous attitude on the part of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration. The unskilled workers under the Delhi government are getting Rs. 673 per day while the same category of workers in Andaman & Nicobar Islands is getting only Rs. 538 per day, a difference of Rs. 135 per day. In this connection, it is submitted that while revising the Minimum Wages during 2017, the minimum wages fixed by the Govt. of NCT of Delhi was adopted in A & N Islands also.
He pointed out; these workers are facing difficulties to pull on the days due to ever increasing prices and not revising their wages for the last 6 years. We are of the opinion that the Andaman & Nicobar Administration has no right to celebrate the Good Governance Day as it failed in the field of decision-making and accountability and also failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation of protecting the human rights of workers in these far-flung islands. CITU A & N State Committee would, therefore, once again request your goodself kindly to accord approval for the revision of minimum wages for the workers in the scheduled employment in Andaman & Nicobar Islands without any further delay. We also demand an inquiry into the undue delay caused in the revision of minimum wages of scheduled employment and take disciplinary action against the officers concerned which will be more effective than making unfruitful celebrations and roof-top announcements about the administrative reforms.
In this regard, General Secretary thanks to the good governance model practiced in these islands, CITU do not expect any reply either from your goodself or any other authority on this issue too.
