Clarification On The Category Of Scheduled Employment Of Our Factory In Tn Under MWA

Dear Members,

Our company is in Tamil Nadu and is a composite unit predominantly connected with the manufacturing of home textiles. The preliminary activities include weaving, processing, dyeing (fabric), and tailoring. The majority of the workers are employed in our tailoring department (confection), where activities such as cutting, stitching, trimming, stain removal, ironing, packing, and warehousing are involved.

It is my view that a composite unit should be considered as a whole, rather than by schedules for each department for coverage under the Minimum Wages Act of 1948. This should be determined by examining the predominant and important functions of a department, along with the majority of workers, as criteria for the entire factory. For example, the general engineering and fabrication schedule cannot be applied due to only two or three lathes functioning in a unit.

Therefore, I kindly request any HR professional to clarify under which schedule our factory should be covered under the Minimum Wages Act, based on the details I have provided.

I look forward to an early response.

Natarajan.R

An industry may have different departments which may have an entirely different kind of activity from the main business of the factory or establishment. For example, a hotel (not a small one but coming under star classification) has an Engineering department which takes care of the maintenance of AC plants, kitchen, security arrangements, etc. But while deciding the scheduled employment under the Minimum Wages Act, it will fall under the broad category, viz, hotels and restaurants only. If we are to implement minimum wages according to the activities, then the Engineering department will come under the schedule of Minor Engineering and the rest of the departments will come under Hotels, lodging houses, or other.

In a similar way, you have to take the primary business as recorded in your factory license as the base and see what wages are applicable to different skills and apply them to your employees. If wages of a Turner are not mentioned separately, give him a wage that is applicable to a similar trade/designation in the same scheduled employment.

Regards,

Madhu.T.K

Thank you very much, Mr. T.K. Madhu, for your valuable clarifications. I hope other members will come out with their views on the subject soon.

Regards,
Natarajan.R