Recently the state cabinet decided to revise the minimum wages of all categories of workers in Meghalaya.
The wages of highly-skilled workers were raised from Rs 586 to Rs 645 per day, skilled workers will now get Rs 605 instead of Rs 530, the wages of semi-skilled workers were revised to Rs 565 from Rs 474, while unskilled workers will get Rs 525 instead of Rs 419 per day.
The Meghalaya Cabinet also amended the Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Regulation of Employment and Conditions Rules, 2008 on January 10, 2025.
The amendment increased benefits for construction workers, including medical payments, disability support, and education for their children.
According to the government the amendment will benefit the approximately 80,000–85,000 construction workers registered with the government.
However, will such benefits dispensed by the government to the construction workers percolate to those intended by the former.
As we all know many of the construction workers are illiterate and may not know the fine print and that they are entitled to the revised wages, or benefits of the amended Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Regulation of Employment and Conditions Rules, 2008.
The contractors or people who hire them will try to exploit these construction workers for their own benefit. We all know big contractors hire middle men who bring cheap labours from outside the state.
The Labour Department will also have to ensure that migrant workers are supervised by guaranteeing that those responsible for bringing them register with authorities concerned.
In 2024, the Meghalaya cabinet had the amended the Meghalaya Identification Registration (Safety and Security) of Migrant Workers Act 2020, wherein migrant workers must register with the Labour Department in accordance with the Interstate Workmen Act 1979 and the Meghalaya Identification, Registration (Safety & Security) of Migrant Workers Rules 2020.
However the big question is does the Labour Department have enough manpower to go to these construction sites all over Meghalaya to ensure that the workers registered with the government are paid the minimum wages as guaranteed by the government or get the benefits of the amended Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Regulation of Employment and Conditions Rules, 2008.
We do not know when the registration of construction workers last updated, with the passage of time many could have entered the trade and the numbers could be much more than the figures given by the state government.
Another task of the Labour Department is to give skill training to the local construction workers so that contractors do not have to bring workforce from outside the state.
But until such time Meghalaya has to depend on labourers from outside the state.
