MUMBAI: India’s parliament on Friday passed a “historic” law to guarantee a minimum wage to hundreds of millions of workers, but labor activists said it did not go far enough to protect those in the informal sector.
The Code on Wages aims to set standard wages across India, where almost 90 percent of the labor force works in the informal sector with no security, low pay and little or no benefits.
Labour minister Santosh Gangwar said the “historic” bill would for the first time ensure about 500 million Indian workers received minimum pay. Previously, one in three casual workers on daily wages had been excluded, according to official data.
“This will be the first time that all workers who earn daily wages and employed across all sectors will have the right to a minimum wage,” a labor ministry official told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
India’s minimum wage is 176 Indian rupees ($3) for an eight-hour work day, but local authorities can set their own lower rate and at least six states do so.
India’s upper house passed the Code on Wages Bill, the first of four labor bills designed to replace 44 archaic laws, on Friday evening within three days of it being voted through the lower house.
Speaking in parliament, opposition lawmakers said the bill lacked teeth and failed to guarantee “fair wages” to workers.
“After so many years, our government is still talking about minimum wages and not fair wage. We have missed the opportunity to improve lives of millions of people living in sub-human conditions,” said parliamentarian Madhusudan Mistry.
Labour activists said many workers would remain vulnerable to exploitation, particularly those hired through contractors, which is often the case for brick kilns and tea plantations.
Opposition politicians criticized a provision allowing employers to make deductions for staff benefits such as housing, food and travel payments, a practice that has for decades driven workers into debt bondage.
“India is legitimising modern-day slavery. The struggle for bonded labor just got more difficult,” said Chandan Kumar, coordinator of labor rights organization Working People’s Charter.
India passes ‘historic’ minimum wage law amid activist worries
India passes ‘historic’ minimum wage law amid activist worries
- Labour minister Santosh Gangwar said “historic” bill would ensure 500 million Indian workers received minimum pay
- India’s upper house passed the Code on Wages Bill
Suspected Russia shadow tanker escorted toward French port: prefecture
- The tanker, the Grinch, was intercepted Thursday morning in international waters
- French prosecutors suspect it of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet
PARIS: An intercepted oil tanker suspected of belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet headed Saturday to a port in southern France for police to inspect, French authorities said.
The tanker, the Grinch, was intercepted Thursday morning in international waters between Spain and North Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on X.
French prosecutors suspect it of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet, a network of vessels Moscow is accused of using to dodge sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.
The French navy was escorting it on Saturday evening toward the port of Fos-sur-Mere near Marseille, where it was scheduled to arrive later in the day, the regional maritime prefecture said in a statement.
It will be anchored and kept at the disposal of the Marseille public prosecutor as part of a preliminary investigation for failure to fly a flag, it added.
The prefecture said nautical and air exclusion zones had been established around the anchorage site.
Some 598 vessels suspected of belonging to the shadow fleet are under European Union sanctions.
Authorities said the 249-meter-long Grinch appears under that name on a UK sanctions list of Russian shadow?fleet vessels, but as Carl on lists compiled by the EU and the United States.
