Perseverance Pays as Brick Moulders get Fair Statutory Minimum Wages

 Dinesh Parmar, Secretary, Int Bhatta Majdur Union, Ahmedabad, Ph - 9409307632, writes -

The Gujarat Government has notified the minimum wages for brick moulders as Rs. 293 per 490 bricks from 5^th October 2021, superseding its earlier notification dated January 2, 2020 that had notified the same minimum wage for 1100 bricks. This marks a 225 percent hike in the previous wage rate, an increase unheard for any section of workers in India. The notification is the result of a 13-year long struggle waged by Int Bhatta Majdur Union Ahmedabad for scientific determination of piece rate minimum wages. This is a story that needs to be told.  

While statutory minimum wages are normally declared on a time rate basis for eight hours of work, for some occupations the state declares minimum wages on a piece rate basis. However, the piece rate is determined arbitrarily. This was the case for brick kilns in Gujarat where the minimum rate was declared for every 1100 bricks moulded by hand. The Int Bhatta Majdur Union, a Union of brick kiln workers in Gujarat, that started working in the year 2008, realized that the Government rate is completely unrealistic. The number of bricks was pegged much higher than the actual average eight-hour production. The Union first submitted its memorandum to the Advisory Board on Minimum Wages on 30^th October 2008 demanding fixation of a proper piece rate after a scientific Time Motion Study. The Board in turn forwarded this recommendation to the State Government. Repeated reminders to the Gujarat Labour Department did not bear any fruit and so the Centre for Labour Research and Action, a Gujarat based labour rights NGO, sponsored a study by the Industrial Design Centre of Indian Institute of Techonology, Bombay to determine the average production of brick moulders in an eight-hour day. The Industrial Design Centre of IIT Bombay is a world-renowned centre for such work. It undertook the study in the year 2013 and submitted its report in the year 2014. The report estimated average production of brick moulders in an eight-hour day to be 490. The report was shared with the Gujarat Labour Department by the Union.

Bowing to the facts of the time and motion study done by IIT Bombay, in the year 2015, the Gujarat Government asked the Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI) Ahmedabad to set up a committee to undertake a Time and Motion Study to determine average production by one worker in an eight-hour day. The state Government left out brick kiln workers from its five yearly notifications for statutory Minimum Wages on the ground that the same will be notified after the results of the MGLI committee become available. The MGLI Committee submitted its report to the Government in the year 2017. Its findings matched the results of the earlier study by IIT Bombay.

Brick moulding in Gujarat is a labour intensive manual process carried out by migrant labourers who are contracted by contractors for the brick kiln owners against advance given to them and are effectively bonded labourers. The labourers come with their whole family and work as a unit so as to repay the advance and earn something over and above and so even the children are pressed into the work jeopardising their education and health. Thus, this constitutes one of the worst forms of primitive accumulation that is rampant in almost all sectors in India. While in other sectors, at least the statutory minimum wages are better, in brick moulding they are very low.

However, what came as a shock to the Union was that on 2nd January 2020, the State Government again notified the statutory minimum wage for brick kiln workers on the old pattern for 1100 bricks, completely disregarding the findings of its own committee. This led to the Union filing a Special Civil Application in the Gujarat High Court in September 2020 demanding quashing of the Notification and issue of a new one based on the findings of the MGLI study. The Government informed the High Court that it will issue a new Notification following which the High Court disposed of the matter. The new Notification was issued on 5^th October 2021.

It could be called a happy ending. However, the real struggle to translate the Government Notification into actual wages on the ground starts now. Majority of the brick kiln workers in Gujarat are seasonal migrants from states like Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and UP who are brought against advance payments on pre-determined wages for the whole season and work under conditions that can be described as bonded labour.