Calcutta, Oct. 25: The government today announced revised minimum monthly and daily pay for workers in 31 of the 55 industrial sectors in Bengal.

Labour minister Purnendu Bose said at Writers’ Buildings that the sectors in which wages were revised include construction or maintenance of roads, flour mills, oil mills, paints, chemical factories, power looms, security services, agriculture, rice mills and bell metal and brass, ceramic, plastic, plywood, silk printing and shoe-making industries.

“Wages could not be revised in 24 sectors because of litigation and because opinions are being sought from various quarters, including trade unions,” Bose said.

Private sector units employing unskilled and semi-skilled hands will also have to follow the revised wages that should benefit lakhs of workers.

A labour department official said the revised wages would be effective from today.

Labour department officials said the state had been divided in two zones — A and B.

Calcutta and other municipal areas will make up zone A, and rural areas zone B.

“The average daily minimum wage in zone A is Rs 196.31 while in zone B it is about Rs 189. Within each zone in the 31 sectors, the government has categorised the wages in three groups — skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. In some sectors, a highly-skilled category has been added,” a labour department official said.

Bose alleged that there was “no uniformity in the minimum wages of workers during the previous Left Front government’s rule”.

In zone A, the highest wage was Rs 196, which will now rise to Rs 215. In the same segment, the lowest wage was Rs 118. That will now be Rs 127. (See Chart)

“The minimum wages during Left rule varied from Rs 115 to Rs 145, but lower rates were paid as there was virtually no monitoring,” Bose said. “We will have to create awareness among the management and trade unions to ensure that workers get their minimum wages.”