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The Madhya Pradesh government on Sunday said it had taken several steps to improve the environment for workers, to enable labour reforms.
"Three important labour Acts were amended during the recently concluded winter session of the state Assembly," said state Labour, Backward Classes and Welfare Minister Antar Singh Arya on Sunday.
"Minimum wages have been increased by up to 60 per cent. A new category, high-skilled class, has also been added among labourers. The wages of bidi labourers had also increased from Rs 78 to Rs 92 a day," he added.
The minister said his government had taken stern action against those who engaged children as labourers.
"Our government is serious about this (child labour) issue. About 100 children were freed last year," the minister said, while presenting the report card of his department.
He added the government had decided to increase the retirement age of labourers from 58 to 60 years.
On exodus of labourers from the state, Arya said various schemes of the government had helped stem the outflow. "Some labourers do go out of the state every year but they also come back."
The minister also claimed no industry-labour clash was reported in the state.
The labour department had resolved 752 industrial disputes. "Effective mechanism of inspection has also brought down the rate of accidents in factories in the past two years," he said.
