Equal pay for equal work may soon become a reality for all casual workers engaged by the central government and its PSUs. The Union government has asked all ministries, departments and PSUs to take further action on a Delhi High Court order regarding ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ for casual workers.
In an Office Memorandum dated October 7, 2019, the Department of Personnel and Training directed the ministries/department/PSUs to submit the action taken report on the matter. Earlier, the High Court had asked for Centre’s response on the implementation of equal pay for equal work law as mandated by a Supreme Court judgement.
In an OM dated September 4, 2019, the DoPT had asked the ministries/departments to follow its instructions issued through an OM dated 07.06.1988 in “letter and spirit”. The 31-year-old OM had stated the following for making payments to contractual workers:
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- Where the nature of work entrusted to the casual workers and regular employees is the same, the casual workers may be paid at the rate of 1/30th of the pay at the minimum of the relevant pay scale plus dearness allowance for work of 8 hours a day.
- In cases where the work done by a casual worker is different from the work done by a regular employee, the casual worker may be paid only the minimum wages notified by the Ministry of Labour & Employment or the State Government/Union Territory Administration, whichever is higher, as per the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
- Persons on daily wages (casual workers) should not be recruited for work of regular nature.
Source: Financial Express
