Justice K Chandru, dismissing a writ petition filed by South India Cashew Nut Manufacturers Association, said the minimum wages paid in Tamil Nadu was far below the wages paid in Kerala. The judge also rejected the association's plea to delink dearness allowance to the workers. Pointing out that the salary structure, in terms of Minimum Wages Act, came into force in 1996, the judge said the clock could not be put back.
Tamil Nadu has more than 650 cashew nut units. The over Rs 968-crore industry employed more than 10,000 workers, most of them women.
A salary structure for the employees came into being only in 1996 after labour unrest and intense negotiations among the labour officials, managements and representatives of workers.
The association resisted the latest GO on the ground that the process cost had gone up and that the managements could not afford to enhance daily wages of workers.
Rejecting the submissions, Justice Chandru said if the revised salary along with the proposed dearness allowance is not paid, labourers would suffer and they could not purchase even their regular day-to-day household necessities. Dismissing the petition, the judge imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 each to be paid to the Labour Progressive Federation and the Tamil Nadu Munthiri Paruppu Thozhilalar Sangam, which had represented the workers.
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