Railways provide minimum wages to Shramik Kalyan contract workers, ensure 100% compliance

The Ministry of Railways on Thursday informed that the Railways has ensured 100 percent compliance of payment of minimum wages to contract workers through the e-application Shramik Kalyan Portal. It further informed that around Rs 3,49,590 lakh of wage amount and about 6 crores man-days were registered on the Indian Railways Shramik Kalyan e-application as of Tuesday. 

Elaborating on the benefits of the Indian Railway Shramik Kalyan e-application that was developed and launched on  October 1, 2018, the ministry said, "E-application ensures the compliance of provisions of the Minimum Wages Act and also ensures that contractual workers working on in Indian Railways get their rightful due by enforcing the contractors to regularly upload wage payment data into e-application This helps Railways as Principal Employer to keep vigil over wages disbursed by contractors to contract workers."

"As of March 9, a total of 15,812 contractors and a total of 3,81,831 contract workers are registered on this portal. Along with this. a total of 48,312 no. of letter of acceptance, Rs 3,49,590 lakhs wage amount and about 6 crores man-days are also registered on this portal," the ministry added.

Streamlining registration process

It is pertinent to note here that the said  e-application is also available for use by the different units and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under the Ministry of Railways

Every contract worker has to have a profile, created by his contractor where he will be informed about the wages provided to him and contribution made to EPF and ESIC. There are checks in the portal to ensure that wages paid by the contractor are in conformation to the Minimum Wages fixed by the government of India from time to time. 

Providing further insights on the same, the ministry stated, "Railways' bill passing authorities, before passing the contractor's bills, have to check whether the contract workers wage data have been uploaded by the contractor on e-application."

(Inputs from ANI)