The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government has found violations of minimum wages rules at 165 institutions in a ten day drive launched on December 10. Following the violations, the government has also issued an advisory to all heads of 104 department (HODs) to ensure compliance to the laid down rules failing which strict action will be taken against them, Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai said on Friday.
Rai said that during a 10-day special drive that concluded on Friday, as many as 182 government and private institutions were inspected and of these, 165 were found to be violating the minimum wages rules.
“The decision to inspect institutions was taken after many such complaints were brought to notice of the department. We planned this move to deter owners and contractors and to aware general public against such exploitation,” he said.
He further said that nine teams of labour department were formed to conduct raids at different locations across the city. “The team found the number of violations in its inspection. Many of the institutions were found not paying the labourers for working more than that of the scheduled time,” he said.
The labour minister said that district-wise hearing in cases of violation of rules at concerned labour units will continue till January.
Rai said that in the next step, the government would start hearing the cases of those found guilty in the raid. The hearing would be commenced from December 24 to January 4. All the proceedings of hearing would also be video recorded for further course of action, he said.
It may be noted that Delhi Government has fixed wages in various categories such as for unskilled labourers, the amount payable is Rs 14,000 per month while Rs 15,400 per month for semi-skilled and Rs 16,962 for skilled.