Dattatreya thanks Centre for hike in wages of SCCL workers

Hyderabad: On account of the initiative and efforts of Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatraya, who took the Union Members of Singareni Collieries to Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal, the minimum wages of Singareni Collieries contract workers has been enhanced applicable to unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers.

To this effect, the orders were issued by the Management of the Singareni Collieries today, on account of which about 12,000 contract workers would get benefitted. In case of unskilled workers, the minimum wage per day has been enhanced by Rs.48/- which amounts to Rs.996/- more per month besides the arrears of Rs.7000/- accrued from 19th January, 2017. Similarly, there is revision of wages for the semi-Skilled, Skilled and highly Skilled workers @ of Rs.420/- , Rs.506/- and Rs.596/- respectively.

The Central Government had raised the minimum wages for the non-agricultural workers by 42% on 19th January this year. But the Singareni Collieries has not implemented the revised wages. On account of non implementation, the workers had went on strike for nine days in the month of March 2017 and during the negotiations, the SCCL management agreed to implement the revision from March, 2017 but was not implemented till day. Having no recourse, the Unions comprising of BMS, CITU, INTUC, IFTU and others have represented to Bandaru Dattatraya.

Having appreciated the facts, Dattatraya took the initiative and represented in person along with the Unions to Piyush Goyal. Similarly, BJP MLAs G. Kishan Reddy and Dr. K. Laxman toured the Collieries area to find the ground realities.

At the revision in Singareni Collieries, the Union Ministers have expressed their happiness and congratulated the workmen. On this occasion, Dattatraya stated that Narendra Modi’s Government is pro-workers and making every effort to provide job security, wage security and social security. "It is a historic decision in 70 years of independence that the wages of non-agricultural workers were raised by 42%, thanks to Narendra Modi’s vision and concern towards the labour force especially the unorganized sector," he said.

Avula Goverdhan, Chairman, Minimum Wage Advisory Board(Central), Mallesham, President, BMS, Pulli Raja Reddy, Secretary, BMS, Telangana State thanked Bandaru Dattatraya and Piyush Goyal for their efforts.