The Jharkhand government has decided to hike the dearness allowances for all categories of contract workers.

The hike in dearness allowances which will be effective from April 1 onward, will lead to an increase in wages of all kinds of labourers in the range of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500.

“Our government is sensitive towards the issue of contract labourers too. This has led to a policy on increasing dearness allowances of the contract workers to cope up with the inflation,” said a senior official of Jharkhand labour, employment, training and skill development department.

Jharkhand labour commissioner Sanjeev Besra confirmed the decision.

“The hike has been done after several years and will be applicable from April 1 onward,” said Besra.

“Using the powers conferred by sub-section (b) of clause (V) of sub-rule (2) of Rule-25 of the Contract Labor (Regulation and Abolition) Rules, 1972, the government has determined the service conditions and wages payable to the contract workers.

“The rates of variable dearness allowance notified by the department of labour, planning, training and skill development have been fixed from the date of 01.04.2023, which will be payable to the contract workers,” said a communique issued by the Jharkhand public relation department on Thursday evening.

As per the government order, the wages payable to unskilled labourers for 2020 was Rs 8,571.78 per month, in which from April 2023, variable dearness allowance has been increased by Rs 2,220.94.

Now such workers will be given Rs 10,792.72 per month.

“Semi-skilled workers were entitled to Rs 8,977.47 in 2020, but their dearness allowance has been increased by Rs 2,326.06 from April 2023. Now such workers will get Rs 11,303.53 per month. The wages payable to skilled workers in 2020 were Rs 11,935.06 per month. After giving a dearness allowance of Rs 3,092.37, Rs 15,027.43 will be payable to such workers.

“On the other hand, highly skilled workers used to get Rs 13,675.59 in 2020, but due to increase in variable dearness allowance by Rs 3,543.34, now such workers will get Rs 17,218.93 as wages per month,” the order said.