The government has a formed a committee comprising representatives from the government, trade unions and employers to fix minimum wage for workers employed in industrial enterprises paving the way for tripartite meeting.

Purushottam Poudel, joint secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE), said the notice regarding formation of the committee will be published in the Gazette soon.

The Minimum Wage Fixation Committee (MWFC) comprises three representatives each from trade unions and representative organizations of employers, and the officials of MoLE.

“We have received names of representatives of employers and trade unions. We will initiate the tripartite dialogue once the notice is published in the Gazette,” Poudel told Republica on Tuesday.

MoLE has nominated Poudel as the coordinator of the government team that also comprises under secretary of MoLE and director general of Department of Labor.

According to Poudel, the committee has been mandated to fix remuneration of all industrial workers except those working in tea estates.

Pashupati Murarka, vice president of FNCCI, said Manish Agrawal, Ashok Todi and Uday Raj Pandey have been nominated to the committee from employers´ side. Agrawal is the vice-chairman of FNCCI´s Employer Council, while Todi and Uday Raj Pandey are executive members of FNCCI.

“We have already sent names of our representatives in the committee,” Murarka said.

Similarly, Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC) -- a common platform of country´s seven major trade unions -- has nominated Hari Datta Joshi, Dhirendra Singh and Ganesh Regmi to the committee. Joshi is the vice president of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GFONT), while Dhirendra Singh is the president of Factory Labor Union of Nepal Trade Union Congress (Independent). Regmi is the general secretary of All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF).

Talking to Republica, Bishnu Rimal, president of GFONT, said he is not optimistic about the committee fixing minimum remuneration of workers. “The committee has been given tenure of three months which is very long. It shows that that the government is not interested in settling the minimum wage issue in time,” Rimal added.

He also informed that JTUCC meeting held last week decided to push the government to fix wage through collective bargaining if the minimum wage fixation process lingered on.

“We are for holding election of official trade unions at industrial enterprises at the earliest. If the election is delayed, we will have to make alternative arrangement for collective bargaining by designating trade unions having larger workers base for the bargaining,” Rimal added.

As per the existing provision, minimum wage of workers has to be increased every two years keeping in view inflation and other factors. Three major trade unions -- ANTUF, NTUC (Independent) and GFONT -- had signed an agreement with employers to increase minimum salary by Rs 1,500 to Rs 6,200 per month daily wage by Rs 31 to Rs 226 on March 24, 2011.

The government, however, raised minimum daily wage to Rs 231 later on following pressure from a faction of ANTUF and other trade union affiliated to fringe political parties.

Published on: 3 April 2013 | Republica