Can We Pay More Than Minimum Wages To The Contract Labor?

Dear All,
The Case is - my company is auto compo.manufa. in Pune. We have some contractual workers in the company out of which few are sincere & hard working..But our mgmt not willing to take them on roll. In this case to retain such workers , Can we give the wages more than minimum wages e.g. if as per Min. wage act it is suppose Rs.5000 pm & now in above case, can we give Rs. 7000 or more to the contractual workers?
& If yes, What would be the max. limit of wages. ?
Please provide the solution or views.
Thanks,
Ganesh Kadam
8975915050

Dear Member
Off course you can pay more than Minimum wages but do take this path very cautiously as you may get caught in the provisions of equal remuneration act which clearly states equal pay for equal work and it is very difficult to prove hard work and sincerity. Secondly by giving different salaries you would be creating grounds for unionisation by spreading discontent in the workers. Also look at long term, with the increase in minimum wages the overall liability of the company will also increase.
Better ask the contractor to provide them with an award or something ,such as a cash award of Rs. 10000/- , by which you can appreciate their contribution without creating any precedence and keeping the company costs also in check.
Regards
Preetam Deshpande

Dear Ganesh ji,
You can pay more than minimum. No one will ask you why you paid more. But you can not pay less than minimum. If you pay less than minimum, definitely you will be asked.
There is no upper limit. But whatever you pay, should be justifiable.

Respected
Ganesh Kadam
Law always speaks about minimum thing which you and org has to do.
maximum is your limit ... there is no MAX limit .......

Dear Ganesh, In order the keep the fixed head count low it is apt for the orgn to not absorb them. And yet, it does not stop you to pay them above the minimum wages act. You may want to look at the past trend in terms of how their increment has typically been.. 5-8% every year or what? This may give you a feel of how you may want to place them now.
Also, it means that there may be existing staff who are senior in terms of tenure (and are on your payroll) yet due average performance their salary has not moved up so high. You may want to factor that the rise you give year on year to both such staff may after a couple of years be such that the contract staff ends up getting equal/more than inhouse staff.

You can pay anything above than the minimum wages but you cannot pay lower than whatever prescribed therefore it is called minimum wages Act

Dear Preetam ji,
I fully agree with you.
Equal Remuneration Act is of BABA AADAM jamana. This Act is out dated today. We should make representation to Govt. to discard it.
Form D register under it, if not maintained then there is a fine of 25k. Enforcing Officers also do not know how to maintain it. They want you to make it back & white.
It is a good suggestion.

Dear Ganesh ji,
It is not your prerogative to increase the wages of contract labour. Hope you understand what I mean to say.

Dear Preetam ji,
In my company, to avoid the unhappy or imbalance situation about wages, I have kept the performance of the worker in certain categories which is communicated with all CONTRACTUAL ASSOCIATES,. But the point you raised about increase in min. wages, increases overall liability is also valid & I'll definitely think on it. Also the cash Award is good idea. But need to check with Sr. Mgmt.
Thanks for suggestions.
Regards,
Ganesh

Dear Pankaj ji,
Thanks for sharing your views, but I was talking about only the SHOP FLOOR-CONTRACTUAL LABORS which comes under Min. Wage Act not about any staff or white collar employees.
Regards,
Ganesh