V. P. MOHAN KUMAR, J.

( 1 ) IT has been recognised that the payment of the minimum wages to a worker by the employer has to be guaranteed by the State. Though, the Supreme Court of the United states as late as in 1936 i. e. , in More Head v. Tipaldo, 298 U. S. 587 regarded a Minimum wages Act as an unconstitutional interference with the Freedom of Property, this has not been so with Indian Polity. A minimum wage was considered necessary catalyst to advance social status of the worker even according to our ancient law given and treated as an obligation of the State.

( 2 ) MR. JUSTICE Y. BHASKARA RAO (as he then was) pointed out thus in Secunderabad club v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1997-1- llj-434) (AP-DB) adverting to the concept of minimum wages as laid down in SUKRA neeti, His Lordship quoted thus :"it would be relevant to look at the conditions governing wage, life and other social aspects of workers, which are delineated in SUKRA NEETI an ancient treatise. The English translation of which is: "wages to be considered as fair must be sufficient to procure the necessities of life from out of the wage. The wage of an employee should therefore be a fair wage, so as to enable him to procure all the necessary requirements of life. " (SUKRA neeti II, 805-806 ). "by payment of very low wages, employees (of the king) are likely to become his enemies and they are also likely to become plunderers of treasuries and cause harassment to the general public. " (SUKRA neeti II, 807-808 ). "thus the concept of payment of minimum wages was inbuilt in our society even before the introduction of the Minimum Wages Act of 1948.

( 3 ) THE principle that it is the duty of the state to ensure the payment of minimum wages has now been recognised by the framers of the Constitution by incorporating article 43 in the Constitution of India. Though this Article is included in the Chapter of directive Principles and in its sweep contemplates payment of "living wages" to a worker, nevertheless, it is the duty of the State to ensure that the workers are paid the minimum wages. The exercise to fix the minimum wages being thus the responsibility of the State, it has enacted The Minimum wages Act in 1948 itself, whereby the State has directly imposed statutory minimum standards on the scheduled employment. Referring to KAHN-FREND's ARTICLE on "minimum WAGES LEGISLATION IN GREAT britain" FRIEDMAN, in his book "law IN A changing SOCIETY" (2nd Edition) states thus in regard to the minimum wage fixation:"in substance this is sometimes much like a process of collective bargaining, but in form it is a State Act which, by means of a statutory order, imposes terms on the parties themselves. In Britain, this machinery is used in a few industries where collective organization is weak, notably in agriculture, catering and in the retail trade. "

( 4 ) IN India the fixation is intended to cover all industries scheduled to the Act and included in the schedule by virtue of the exercise of power under Section 27 thereof irrespective of the fact whether there is collective bargaining or not. It further traverses and statutorily nullifies the results of any collective bargaining if it is demonstrated that the same is against the statutory fixation under the minimum Wages Act, 1948.

( 5 ) THE Act has set up certain mechanism to ascertain what would be the minimum wages payable to the worker. It defines "wages' at Section 2 (h) in the following manner:"2 (H) "wages" means all remuneration, capable of being expressed in terms of money, which would, if the terms of the contract of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled, be payable to a person employed in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment (and includes house rent allowance), but does not include - (i) the value of- (a) any house accommodation, supply of light, water, medical attendance; or (b) any other amenity or any service excluded by general or special order of the appropriate Government; (ii) any

Click Here to Read the rest of this document