Beedi workers demand revised minimum wages

Beedi workers demand revised minimum wages

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 5, 2012: The SK Beedi Workers’ Federation organized a protest on June 5, Tuesday demanding that they should get the minimum wages fixed by the labour department for beedie workers. A protest rally from Town Hall to the DC’s office marked the beginning of the event. 

In his protest address, P. Sanjeeva, president of the SK Beedi Workers’ Federation said that owners of beedie companies, officials of the labour department, and leaders of various unions met in Bangalore on March 8 and decided that beedie workers must receive a minimum wage of Rs. 116.20 per day from April 1, 2012, which includes the basic minimum wage of Rs. 106 for every thousand beedies rolled along with dearness allowance of Rs. 10.20 or 3 paise per day for every point of price rise. But beedie workers are still not receiving these wages because beedie company owners are making the excuse that the government has not published the same in the state gazette, he added. 

 

Secretary V. Seetharam Berinja said that DK has four lakh beedi workers and the state of Karnataka has nearly 8 lakh workers. This delay will cause a great deal of financial loss to these workers, most of who are women from economically backward classes. 

The federation also condemned the move to stop scholarships for children of labourers given by the labour welfare department on grounds that the Right to Education Act will provide free education to all children below the age of 14. The protestors also demanded hike in monthly pensions for beedie workers. 

Mr. Berinja said that the Employees Public Fund Organization provides a monthly pension of Rs. 100 to all those who became beedie workers on or after Nov 16, 1995. Although the federation has been making repeated requests to increase this amount to Rs. 1,500, no action has been taken so far. 

Further, he said that the sub-committee of the Karnataka Labour Department agreed to raise minimum wages of beedie workers for every 1000 beedies rolled from Rs. 93.24 to Rs. 116.20, but did not do anything about this. 

The federation submitted a memorandum to DC Dr. Channappa Gowda. 

Federation members like B Vishwanath Naik, K V Bhat, B Shekar, Ramanna Rai, Suresh Kumar, Sulochana and others were present.