Thiruvananthapuram, November 4: Kerala is considering higher minimum wages and wider bonus benefits for workers under its proposed state rules for implementing the central Labour Codes, after a draft report carrying key recommendations was handed over to Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan by Labour Minister Bindu Krishna on Wednesday, IANS reported. This follows the earlier development on October 22, when a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister formed the special committee and gave it 10 days to submit its recommendations.

Source: IANS via The Freedom Press

The most significant structural proposal is a revision to the family unit used for minimum-wage calculation: the existing unit of three members is proposed to be expanded to five by including the worker's parents, which would directly raise the wage baseline and create scope for higher minimum wages across categories, NationPress reported. The report also recommends bringing more workers under the coverage of bonus and other statutory benefits.

Source: NationPress

3 to 5Proposed expansion of the family unit used to calculate minimum wages, by including the worker's parents
7Trade unions represented on the special committee
10 daysTime the committee took for its deliberations
29 into 4Central labour laws consolidated into the four Labour Codes

Worker safety features prominently in the recommendations. The report calls for free medical examinations for employees engaged in hazardous and dangerous work processes, and proposes strict safety provisions for women working night shifts, with safeguards that protect them while permitting night-hour employment.

The committee was constituted at the October 22 meeting chaired by Chief Minister Satheesan. It was convened by the Labour Commissioner and included the Law Department Additional Secretary, representatives of seven trade unions and Labour Department officials, and concluded its work after ten days of deliberations examining the concerns of the state government and trade unions over the Labour Codes. State-level amendments had earlier been examined by the Justice Gopal Gowda Committee, which submitted recommendations on necessary legal changes.

The report additionally calls for amendments to provisions relating to lockouts and layoffs, aimed at giving the state government greater powers to intervene in such situations, and is framed to ensure that Kerala's implementation of the Codes — which consolidate 29 central laws into four codes — does not erode existing worker safeguards on wages, welfare and workplace safety. The draft report will now be examined by the state government as it proceeds with framing formal state rules under the Labour Codes.