Introduction to Wage Board Section

Wage Board Section

• Wage Board Section of the Ministry of Labour and Employment deals with the following two Acts, namely:

1. The Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 - An Act to regulate certain conditions of service of working journalists and other persons employed in newspaper establishments.

2. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 - An act to provide for the payment of bonus to persons employed in certain establishments on the basis of profits or on the basis of production or productivity and for matters connected therewith."

Wage Boards

• In the 1950s and 60s, when the organized labour sector was at a nascent stage of development, the Government in appreciation of the problems of wage fixation in some sectors, constituted need based Wage Boards from time to time in line with the accepted policy of the Ministry of Labour.  The Wage Boards are tripartite in character in which representatives of workers, employers and independent members participate and finalize the recommendations. 
• At present, there is provision for only two Wage Boards, one for the Working Journalists and the other for the Non-Journalist Newspaper Employees which are in operation as statutory Wage Boards.  All other Wage Boards have ceased to exist.

 

The Working Journalist and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955.

• The Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (the Act) provides for regulation of conditions of service of working journalists and other persons employed in newspaper establishments.  Section 9 and Section 13C of the Act, inter-alia, provide for setting up of Wage Boards for fixation and revision of rates of wages in respect of working journalists and non-journalist newspaper/news agency employees respectively. The Act has been subsumed in Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions, 2020 which has been notified on 29.09.2020.
• The Act does not lay down the periodicity for constituting the Wage Board.  In the past, various Wage Boards for Working Journalists and Non-Journalist Newspaper Employees were set up from time to time as shown in the Table below:-

 

 

Sl. No.	Name of the Industry	Date of appointment of Wage Board	Date on which final report was submitted to the Government	Date of acceptance of the recommendation by the Government	Name of the Wage Board
1	2	3	4	5	6
I.	Wage Board for Working Journalists	02-05-1956	NA	11-05-1957	Divatia Wage   Board
II.	(a) Wage Board for Working Journalists	12-11-1963	17-07-1967	27-10-1967	Shinde Wage   Board
	(b) Wage Board for Non-Journalist Newspaper   Employees	25-02-1964	17-07-1967	18-11-1967
III.	(a) Wage Board for Working Journalists	11-06-1975	13-08-1980	26-12-1980 & 20-07-1981	Palekar Wage   Board
	Wage Board for Non-Journalist Newspaper Employees	06-02-1976
IV.	Wage Board for Working Journalists and Non-Journalist   Newspaper Employees	17-07-1985	30-05-1989	31-08-1989	Bachawat   Wage Board
V.	Wage Board for Working Journalists and Non-Journalist   Newspaper Employees	02-09-1994	25-07-2000	05-12-2000        & 15-12-2000	Manisana   Wage Board
VI.	Wage Board for Working Journalists & Non-Journalist   Newspaper Employees	24-05-2007	31-12-2010	11-11-2011	Majithia   Wage Board

• The implementation of the recommendations rests with the State Government/UTs, and the same was communicated to the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations for compliance. The Majithia Wage Board Recommendations are presently in vogue.
• In order to monitor the implementation of the notification, a Central Level Monitoring Committee (CLMC) has been set up. The present composition of the Committee is as under:

(i)	Special   Secretary/Additional Secretary, Ministry of Labour &     Employment	-	Chairman
(ii)	Joint   Secretary, Ministry of Labour &   Employment  (in-charge   of Wage Board Section)	-	Member
(iii)	Joint   Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting	-	Member
(iv)	Chief   Labour Commissioner   (Central)	-	Member
(v)	Director/Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Labour &     Employment   (in-charge of Wage Board Section)	-	Member   Secretary

• The Committee meets periodically from time to time both at Regional and National Level (New Delhi). The last meeting of the Committee was held at New Delhi on 24.01.2022 & 27.01.2022 covering all States/UTs to review the implementation of the Wage Board Awards in the country.  In the last CLMC meeting the representatives of States/ UTs were directed to gear up the monitoring mechanism at the State Level and to conduct regular inspections.  The implementation status is obtained from the States/ UTs through Quarterly Progress Reports. 27 States, excluding the States having one-man establishments, have intimated constitution of Tripartite Committee in order to monitor the state level implementation status. The implementation status of Majithia Wage Board recommendations in the States/ UTs as on date is 30.82%. Uttarakhand (100%), Puducherry (100%), A&N Island (100%), Tamil Nadu (99.01%), Andhra Pradesh (83.67%) and Rajasthan (82.81%) are the leading States in implementing the Majithia Wage Board recommendations.

 

 

1. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965

• The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 (the Act)  provides for the payment of bonus to persons employed in certain establishments, employing 20 or more persons, on the basis of profits or on the basis of production or productivity and for matters connected therewith.   The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 has been subsumed under Code on Wages, 2019 which has been notified on 08.08.2019.
• The minimum bonus of 8.33% is to be paid by every industry and establishment under Section 10 of the Act. The maximum bonus including productivity linked bonus that can be paid in any accounting year shall not exceed 20% of the salary/wage of an employee under Section 31 A of the Act.
• Two ceilings are available under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.  Firstly,the limit specified under Section 2 (13) of the Act defines eligibility of an employee to get the Bonus.  Secondly, Section 12 prescribes limit for calculation of bonus to be paid to an employee.  The two ceilings are revised to keep pace with the price rise and increase in the salary structure.  The revisions of the two ceilings over the years are as follows:

Sl. No.	Year   of Amendment	Eligibility   limit(Rupees   per month)	Calculating   Ceiling   (Rupees per month)
1.	1965	1,600	750
2.	1985	2,500	1,600
3.	1995	3,500	2,500
4.	2007	10,000	3,500
5.	2016 (w.e.f.   01.04.2014)	21,000	7,000   per mensem or the minimum wage for the scheduled employment,   as fixed by the   appropriate Government, whichever is higher.