Clarification On The Category Of Scheduled Employment Of Our Factory In Tn Under MWA

Dear Members
Our company is in Tamil Nadu and is a composite unit predominantly connected with the manufacturing of home textiles with the preliminary activities of weaving,processing,dyeing(fabric) akin to stitching (tailoring).Majority of the workers are being employed in our tailoring department(confection)where the activities of cutting,stitching,trimming,stain removal,ironing,packing and warehousing are involved.

It is my view that a composite unit is to be taken as a whole and not by schedules for each department for coverage under the minimum wages Act,1948 by looking into the predominant & the important function of a dept. along with the majority of workers as a criteria for the whole factory as such. For example general engineering & fabrication schedule can not be applied because of two or three lathes functioning in a unit.

As such, may I request any one(member) of hr professional to clarify as to under what schedule our factory is to be covered under the minimum wages Act, in the light of what I have explained.

Awaiting an early response.

Natarajan.R

An industry may have different departments which may have an entirely different kind of activity from the main business of the factory or establishment. For example, a hotel (not a small one but coming under star classification) has Engineering department which takes care of the maintenance of AC plants, kitchen, security arrangements etc. But while deciding the scheduled employment under the Minimum Wages Act, it will fall under the broad category, viz, hotels and restaurants only. If we are to implement minimum wages according to the activities, then the Engineering department will come under the schedule of Minor Engineering and the rest of the departments will come under Hotels, lodging houses or other.

In the similar way, you have to take the primary business as recorded in your factory licence as the base and see what are the wages applicable to different skills and apply them to your employees. If wages of a Turner is not mentioned in it separately give him a wage that is applicable to the a similar trade/ designation in the same scheduled employment.

Regards,

Madhu.T.K

Thank you very much Mr T.K.Madhu for your valuable clarifications. Hope, other members do come out with their views on the subject soon.
regards,
Natarajan.R