HC orders minimum wages for workers at Telangana police stations

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has directed the state’s Home Department to pay minimum wages to 49 sweepers, scavengers and contingent workers engaged at police stations across the Rachakonda Commissionerate and the districts of Nalgonda, Suryapet and Yadadri, finding that the workers had made out a prima facie case for relief.

Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka passed the interim directions while hearing a petition filed by the workers seeking minimum wages and arrears from the date they were first appointed, and posted the matter for further hearing on August 17.

The petitioners told the court they had been working for several years at police stations, district police offices and reserve police units but were being paid only a lump-sum consolidated wage, rather than the minimum wages prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. They argued that the issue had already been settled in their favour by earlier High Court judgments in similar cases, which had subsequently been upheld by the Supreme Court as well.

What the government argued

The government pleader, opposing the plea, submitted that the workers were part-time or outsourced contingent staff engaged through a cooperative society and that their wages had been paid in line with government orders issued from time to time. It was further argued that fixing minimum wages involved policy and budgetary considerations that fell within the domain of the government and should not be interfered with by the court.

After hearing both sides, the court directed the authorities to pay the workers minimum wages as determined by the concerned district collectors under the Minimum Wages Act and a gazette notification dated October 3, 2016, as revised from time to time. The court clarified that the payments would be subject to the final outcome of the petition.