Centre s minimum wages scheme exact copy of ours: AAP Minister
"We launched the scheme in March. In April the Centre launched its own minimum wages scheme based exactly on the formula we used " Rai said on the last day of the Assembly monsoon session.
He said that implementation of the Delhi government s scheme has been delayed not just due to the court order but it was a result of a conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its "anti-labour thinking".
"While our notification on the minimum wages was called completely flawed by the High Court the Centre s scheme has elicited no objections.
"By incessantly obstructing our scheme s implementation the Centre delayed the welfare of the poor labourers. This is just a conspiracy by the BJP an anti-labour party to give boost to only industrialization and ignore labourers " the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.
He said that the Arvind Kejriwal government is discussing a proposal to stop exploitation of contractual/outsourced labourers through government intervention.
On Thursday Rai met trade union leaders and announced that the Delhi government will adopt the Centre s scheme on minimum wages to ensure higher wages than what the Delhi government s scheme would have provided.
"Under the central scheme skilled workers will get approximately Rs 17 400 per month as against Rs 16 800 under the Delhi government scheme " the Minister had said.
Unskilled workers will get Rs 14 300 compared with Rs 13 800 under the Delhi government s scheme.
The Delhi High Court on August 4 had struck down the government s March notification on higher minimum wages for workers in Delhi as "unconstitutional".
The High Court order had come on several PILs including one filed by Social Jurist a civil rights group which pleaded that the hike in wages was unreasonably low and as such violated the workers fundamental right to life.
--IANS sd/tsb/sed
