Amid the hue and cry of labourers demanding an increase in wage, the Sikkim government on Wednesday announced an increase in the rates of minimum wages by 67 percent.
The State Government has now classified the categories of the workers and revised the rates of minimum wages as mentioned below:
Unskilled : ₹ 300 revised to ₹ 500/- per day
Semi-skilled: ₹ 320/ revised to ₹ 520/- per day
Skilled: ₹ 335/ revised to ₹ 535/- per day
Highly-skilled: ₹ 365/ revised to ₹ 565/- per day
The Department of Labour, Government of Sikkim had last revised the minimum rates of wages in the Scheduled Employments under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 via a notification on September of 2017.
After the Chief Minister of Sikkim, PS Tamang announced the raise in wages and after objections, suggestions, comments, and views from the persons likely to be affected were solicited via a Gazette Notification (No 278 dated 11/07/2022), within a period of 60 days in writing to the Labour Department.
After these objections, suggestions, comments, and views were received on the said proposals, it was examined, and considered by the State Government, and later the rates of minimum wages were revised.
Therefore, the State Government, in the exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 5 read with section 26 (2), (2A) and section 27 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of 1948), the state government has now classified the categories of the workers and revise the daily rates of minimum wages on the same.
The said categories of workers as classified by the Labour Department are in the gallery attached to this post.
Definition of categories according to the Labour department’s notification are:
(a) Un-Skilled Work” means work that involves a simple operation requiring little or no skill or experience on the job.
(b) “Semi-Skilled Work” means work which involves some degree of skill or competence, acquired through experience on the job, and which is capable of being performed under the supervision or guidance of skilled employee and includes unskilled supervisory work.
(c) “Skilled Work” means work that involves skill or competence acquired through experience on the job or through training as an apprentice in a Technical or Vocational Institute and the performance of which calls for initiative and judgment.
d) “Highly-Skilled Work” means work that calls degree of perfection and competence in the
performance of certain jobs including clerical work acquired through intensive technical or professional training or adequate work experience for a certain reasonable period and also require an employee to assume full responsibility for his/her judgment/decision involved in the execution of his/her job.