87% of construction helpers in mega cities not paid minimum wage: Report
Contents News/Article Date: 24th July 2023
Relating to which Act: The Building and Other Constructions Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 hereinafter referred to as the “BOCW Act; The Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Rules, 1998;
Penalty under the Act: Penalties and Procedure
- Penalty for contravention of provisions regarding safety measures.- (1) Whoever contravenes the provisions of any rules made under section 40 shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, or with both, and in the case of a continuing contravention, with an additional fine which may extend to one hundred rupees for every day during which such contravention continues after conviction for the first such contravention.
(2) If any person who has been convicted of any offence punishable under sub-section (1) is again guilty of an offence involving a contravention or failure of compliance of the same provision, he shall be punishable on a subsequent conviction with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which shall not be less than five hundred rupees but which may extend to two thousand rupees or with both:
Applicable to which State: It extends to the whole of India
Type: Details of minimum wages across cities, news report by housing.com
Pertains to: Construction workers across India
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And in the current instance: In India’s mega cities, construction workers are not paid the government-mandated daily minimum wage. This trend is most prominent in the case of unskilled labourers, says a report by construction tech start-up According to the report, Delhi is the worst-performing city while Hyderabad is comparatively better.
And in the past instance: Worker registrations, various Schemes and plans to be implemented in the future under the Chhattisgarh
Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (Labour Department) involves expenditure incurred from the Consolidated Fund under ‘Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996 (No. 28 of 1996) ‘ read with “Chhattisgarh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Rules 1998”.
An individual desirous of benefit under registration and schemes is hereby expected to furnish proof of possession of the Aadhaar or undergo Aadhaar authentication.
Subject: 87% of construction helpers in mega cities not paid minimum wage: Report
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87% of construction helpers in mega cities not paid minimum wage: Report
Source: Housing.com
In India’s mega cities, construction workers are not paid the government-mandated daily minimum wage. This trend is most prominent in the case of unskilled labourers, says a report by construction tech start-up. According to the report, Delhi is the worst-performing city while Hyderabad is comparatively better.
“While 90.9% of helper jobs in Delhi pay less than the minimum wage (RS 711), the percentage is 90.4% for Bengaluru, 88% for Pune and 87.3% for Mumbai. Hyderabad is the best at 78.5%,” says the report. On an average, 87% of construction helpers are not paid minimum wage, it adds.
For technician jobs, Delhi ranks at the bottom, with 66.5% of jobs paying less than the minimum wage (Rs 788). At 65.8%, Bengaluru scores slightly better. In Chennai, 44% of jobs are paying less than the minimum wage.
For supervisor jobs, for which the minimum wage is Rs 866, 26.7% of jobs in Chennai do not meet the daily wage threshold. This is the lowest across all cities. Pune has the highest percentage of jobs not paying the minimum wage, with 42.4% of supervisor jobs not meeting the wage threshold.
The report highlights the fact that less than 10% of jobs make contributions to the Employee’s Provident Fund and provide Employee State Insurance coverage to these workers. Data have been collated from the jobs posted and application patterns on its app. The cities included in the analysis are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.
“Due to poor technological penetration, the construction market has been operating in an opaque manner. This opacity has allowed people to get away with paying low wages, violating legal provisions, and demonstrating bad behaviour. Additionally, more than 50 million workers still have to find work through informal means, and more than 1 million contractors still rely on references to get business,”
Hyderabad highest, Delhi lowest
At Rs 584, the average wage per day was the highest in Hyderabad while it was the lowest in Delhi at Rs 515. For technician jobs, the average wage is the highest in Hyderabad at Rs 862 and Rs 718 in Delhi. For supervisor jobs, Hyderabad is the most well-paying city with Rs 1,035 while Pune is the lowest paying, at Rs 885. Delhi ranks at the penultimate spot, with an average wage of Rs 925.
Less than 10% of jobs provide PF and insurance
Of about 4,500 live jobs on the platform, less than 10% of jobs provide their employees with provident fund deposits and employee state insurance. Only 8.6% of jobs have made provisions for contributing to the Employees’ Provident Funds, and only 7.1% of the jobs have made provisions for covering their employees with the Employee State Insurance.
Maharashtra chosen destination for migrant labourers
For migrant workers, Maharashtra was the preferred location for availing of jobs, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Also, Maharashtra has the highest number of active jobs, followed by Uttar Pradesh. Gujarat ranks third.
Digital literacy is increasing
Data available indicates that the construction industry is gradually becoming more formalised.
“More contractors are also making their processes and payment systems digitised, which may eventually lead to the decline of the currently predominant cash economy. This seems to be in keeping with the progress achieved by the government’s Digital India,” says the report adding that over 1.22 lakh workers have verified their bank account details on its app.
“With the widespread penetration of smartphones and cheap data and the push from the government towards sector formalisation, we feel that the industry is moving in the right direction,”
The platform helps contractors hire and manage construction workers giving direct access to jobs, training, and other financial products. Currently, there are more than 4 lakh construction workers on their platform and has placed over 3,000 workers in projects.