Bhubaneswar, April 26: The migration of workers from Odisha has prompted the state government to consider hiking minimum wages. Taking the first step in this direction, the government has invited objections from the public and trade unions to its proposal for the revision of wages for daily labourers.

“We have called for objections to our proposals within two months. The government will finalise the minimum wage structure after examining the objections,” labour secretary C.T.M. Suguna told The Telegraph today.

The Odisha government has proposed to fix the minimum wage for unskilled workers at Rs 125 per day.

The wage rates for semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled would be Rs 245, Rs 160 and Rs 180 per day respectively, said a notification issued by the Odisha labour department recently. The existing minimum wage for unskilled labourers is Rs 92.50 per day. The wage rate for semi-skilled labourers is Rs 105.50, for skilled labour it’s Rs 118.50 and for highly skilled labourers it’s Rs 131.50 per day.

The government has for the first time proposed fixing minimum wages for the farm sector. It has proposed a minimum wage of Rs 125 for non-ploughing agricultural workers and Rs 150 for ploughing farm labourers.

The Telegraph, in its April 11 edition, had published a detailed report highlighting migration of workforce from Odisha because of the lower wages in the state vis-à-vis neighbouring states.

Compared to Odisha’s Rs 92.50 per day, Chhattisgarh offers Rs 134.15 and Andhra Pradesh Rs 149 to unskilled labourers.

All Odisha’s neighbouring states — Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh — offer higher minimum wages.The minimum wage rate for unskilled labourers in Odisha is even less than half the wage notified by the central government, The Telegraph report had pointed out.

The central trade unions have rejected the government’s proposed wage structure. “We are rejecting the government proposal outright as it is whimsical and arbitrary,” said general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress state committee Sauribandhu Kar.

Kar, a member of the State Level Minimum Wage Advisory Committee, said the committee had recommended a minimum of wage of Rs 200 for unskilled labourers and a hike every six months on the basis of the central government pattern.The recommendations had been made on the basis of the Supreme Court’s verdict, sixth Pay Commission recommendations and inflation, he said.

CITU state committee president Lambodar Nayak also said that all the central trade unions would protest against the government’s proposal.