Hyderabad: In a major policy shift hailed as “gold standard for progressive labour governance”, the Telangana government has officially banned cash wage payments to workers, mandated electronic transfer, and brought gig workers under the safety net of minimum wages. A new Government Order (GO) on labour governance activates the provisions of the Centre’s Code on Wages, 2019, completely repealing and superseding the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, across the state.
A government statement issued on Monday said, “Payouts via paper cash are explicitly banned. Employers must disburse wages through direct electronic transfer (NEFT/RTGS/IMPS) or bank check, building an unalterable trail for labour inspectors and protecting vulnerable workgroups.” By bridging structural business requirements with social protections, the GO (No 6) achieves an “elegant legal balance,” it said.
The GO eliminates the “fragmented, friction-heavy industry-wise frameworks seen in other states” and implements a unified, transparent grid designed to maximise worker security. It makes Telangana India’s most attractive destination for domestic and international capital, it said.
To cut corporate red tape and ensure direct compliance clarity, the notification eliminates hundreds of industry-specific schedules. Instead, the notification categorises all non-agricultural, commercial, and industrial setups into four skill categories.
The notification divided workers into four categories- Unskilled, Semi-skilled, Skilled and Highly skilled for fixing minimum wages. The state has been divided into three zones- Zone 1 covers Municipal Corporations, Zone 2-Municipalities and Zone 3-Rural Areas.
In Zone 1, the minimum wage for unskilled workers has increased from Rs 12,750 to Rs 16,000, for semi-skilled workers, from Rs 13,152 to Rs 17,000; for the skilled category, from Rs 13,772 to Rs 18,500; and for the highly skilled category, from Rs 14,607 to Rs 20,000.
In its mandate to ensure favourable working conditions for workers, the order said any task executed past standard eight-hour daily shifts, or requested on public holidays and weekly rest days, must be compensated as overtime at double (two times) the standard rate of wages.
If an industrial cluster already pays higher rates than this order’s baseline, the old wages are legally exempted from the new rules.
Furthermore, those workers are granted an additional mandatory 10 per cent enhancement over their old wages.
While providing historic safety nets for labour, the GO offers strategic advantages to corporate management and industry.
It eliminates hundreds of complex, industry-specific schedules and provides a single compliance matrix. This drastically lowers legal processing overhead and corporate tracking costs.
The clear distinction between Municipal Corporations (Zone-I), Municipalities (Zone-II), and Rural Areas (Zone-III) lets large-scale industrial developers set up labour-intensive projects such as textiles, manufacturing in lower-overhead rural zones while managing corporate setups in urban centres, the statement said.
It said the GO “positioned Telangana far ahead of regional competitors such as Karnataka or Maharashtra” through several pioneering features. While other states struggle to map digital logistics, Telangana has formalised gig and platform protection by explicitly extending the minimum wage net to eCommerce, Courier Services, and LPG Distribution, the release said.
The GO formally recognised specialised designations such as Drone Technology Pesticide Sprayers under the ‘Highly Skilled’ category, securing premium wages for future professions. The order established absolute gender neutrality, mandating perfectly uniform minimum wage rates for male, female, transgender, and physically challenged employees performing identical or equivalent work.
To eliminate the legal loopholes of subcontracting, the order stated that if a third-party agency fails to deliver wages, the principal employer is directly liable under law to ensure immediate payroll settlement.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
