Inflation is hovering around 10 percent over the past few years.Employers´ representatives made clear their stance at the 4th meeting of Minimum Wage Fixation Committee (MWFC) held on Monday. [break]However, they failed to fix the minimum salary.
Trade unions leaders had made a presentation in the meeting last week, attempting to justify their demands for monthly remuneration (salary plus allowance) of Rs 12,400.
“We are for increasing remuneration of workers on the basis of inflation rate made public by NRB as well as the paying capacity of employers firms, which are passing through slowdown in business,” said Uday Raj Pandey, representative of the employers in MWFC.
Pandey, who is also the executive member of the FNCCI, said workers´ remuneration has to be determined keeping in view their productivity and should be differentiated in line with the living cost in different geographical locations. “As productivity of workers determines how much remuneration they deserve, we are insisting that there should be relationship between salary and productivity growth,” Pandey added.
At the meeting, employers proposed establishing ´Wage Board´ - a permanent mechanism for automatic review of remuneration at certain interval - in the long run.
They also demanded that remuneration be treated as variable cost of enterprises and that separate remunerations be fixed according to sectors of employment. The employers have also suggested to the government to take load-shedding and rising bank interest rates that lead to low productivity into consideration while reviewing remuneration.
Trade union leaders, on the other hand, reiterated their demand of doubling remuneration to Rs 12,400, keeping in view the rising cost of living and monthly budget required for a four-member family. “Inflation alone should not be considered the base for reviewing remuneration as real inflation in the market is far higher than the figure calculated by NRB,” Hari Dutta Joshi, vice-president of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GFONT), said.
Joshi, who is also member of MWFC, said employers should be more pragmatic to ensure better social security for industrial workers.
Joint Trade Union Coordination Center (JTUCC) -- a common platform of country´s seven major trade unions -- has nominated Joshi, Dhirendra Singh and Ganesh Regmi to the committee. Similarly Manish Agrawal, Ashok Todi and Uday Raj Pandey are representative of the private sector in the committee.
The government had formed the tripartite committee led by a joint secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE) in the first week of April. The committee has been mandated to settle the issue regarding minimum salary of workers within three months.
Two years ago, employers, trade unions and government officials had agreed to fix minimum monthly remuneration of worker at Rs 6200, including allowance of Rs 2,650, and daily wage at Rs 231.
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