Who among the following can be appointed as the Chairman of the Central Advisory Board constituted by the Central Government under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948?

Correct — A, (a) One of the independent members of the Board. The answer is written into the statute. Section 8 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 creates the Central Advisory Board, and section 8(2) fixes both its composition and its chairmanship: ’The Central Advisory Board shall consist of persons to be nominated by the Central Government representing employers and employees in the scheduled employments who shall be equal in number and independent persons not exceeding one-third of its total number of members; one of such independent persons shall be appointed the Chairman of the Board by the Central Government.’ The words ’one of such independent persons’ point back to the independent members and to nobody else, which is option (a).

The design is deliberate and it is the thing worth learning. The Board is tripartite: employers on one side, employees on the other, in equal numbers, so that neither side can outvote the other; and a third element, the independents, capped at one-third of the total. The chair is drawn from that third element precisely because its holder must not be a partisan of either side. A chairman taken from the employers’ bench or from the employees’ bench would be presiding over a body in which he already represents an interest, and the Board advises on the fixation and revision of minimum wages — the one subject on which employers and employees are most directly opposed.

Section 8(1) states what the Board is for: ’For the purpose of advising the Central and State Governments in the matters of the fixation and revision of minimum rates of wages and other matters under this Act and for co-coordinating the work of the Advisory Boards the Central Government shall appoint a Central Advisory Board.’ Two functions, then — advice on minimum rates, and co-ordination of the Advisory Boards that section 7 requires the appropriate Government to appoint at its own level. The same tripartite formula, with an independent member in the chair, runs through section 9, which governs the composition of the committees appointed under section 5 and of the section 7 Advisory Board. Learn the rule once and it answers questions about all three bodies.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)One of the employers’ representatives of the Board — The employers’ representatives sit on the Board as one of the two equal interest blocs, and section 8(2) never lets the chair come from either bloc. An employer chairing a body that advises on how high the minimum wage should be set would be presiding over his own case. The word the statute uses for the third element is ’independent’, and it is doing exactly this work: independence here means not representing either employers or employees. Note also that this option and option (c) are printed as a mirrored pair — ’employers’ against ’employees’, one letter apart — so an examiner who wanted you to guess between them has made the wrong answer twice as likely. Reading them as a pair is the signal to look for a third kind of member entirely.
• (c)One of the employees’ representatives of the Board — The employees’ representatives are the other of the two equal interest blocs, and the same reasoning excludes them. It is tempting to think that a welfare statute would tilt its machinery towards labour, but the Minimum Wages Act does not work that way: it balances the two sides in equal numbers and then puts a neutral in the chair. Candidates who reason from the purpose of the Act rather than from its text land here. The purpose of the Act is to protect the worker’s wage; the method is a balanced advisory body, and the two must not be confused.
• (d)A functionary of the Central Government nominated by the Government — This is the plausible bureaucratic answer and it is the one most often marked. Government functionaries do chair many statutory bodies, and the Central Government does appoint the Board and its Chairman. But what the Central Government appoints under section 8(2) is one of the independent persons already on the Board; the section does not create a separate seat for a government nominee to preside from. Keep the two acts apart — the Government makes the appointment, and the appointee is an independent member. Contrast the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952: section 5A(1)(a) gives the Central Board of Trustees ’a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman to be appointed by the Central Government’ and lays down no requirement that either be an independent member. Different statutes design their chairs differently, and the examiner is testing whether you have read this one.

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 fixes wages through consultation rather than by fiat, and its consultative machinery has three layers. Under section 5 the appropriate Government may, in the committee method, appoint committees and sub-committees to hold enquiries and advise it on the wages for a scheduled employment; alternatively it may use the notification method and publish its proposals for comment. Section 7 requires the appropriate Government to appoint an Advisory Board, whose job is to co-ordinate the work of those committees and sub-committees and to advise the government generally on fixing and revising minimum rates. Section 8 sits above both: the Central Government appoints a Central Advisory Board to advise the Central and State Governments on fixation and revision and to co-ordinate the work of the Advisory Boards. Section 9 supplies the common composition rule — employer and employee representatives in equal numbers, plus independent persons not exceeding one-third of the total, one of whom the appropriate Government appoints as Chairman. Section 8(2) repeats that rule for the Central Advisory Board in its own words. The structure is the standard Indian tripartite design: two organised interests balanced against each other, a smaller independent element holding the ring, and the chair drawn from the independents.

Key facts

• Section 8(1), Minimum Wages Act, 1948 — the Central Government shall appoint a Central Advisory Board to advise the Central and State Governments on the fixation and revision of minimum rates of wages and to co-ordinate the work of the Advisory Boards.
• Section 8(2) — the Board consists of nominated representatives of employers and of employees in the scheduled employments, equal in number, and independent persons not exceeding one-third of the total membership.
• Section 8(2) — ’one of such independent persons shall be appointed the Chairman of the Board by the Central Government’.
• Section 7 requires the appropriate Government to appoint an Advisory Board to co-ordinate the work of committees and sub-committees appointed under section 5 and to advise on fixing and revising minimum rates.
• Section 9 lays down the same composition rule — equal employer and employee representation plus independent persons not exceeding one-third, one of whom chairs — for committees under section 5 and for the section 7 Advisory Board.
• The independent members are capped at one-third of the total; the employer and employee blocs are equal to each other.
• The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 is one of the four Central Acts subsumed by the Code on Wages, 2019, along with the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

Common traps

• Assuming that a government nominee presides simply because the Government makes the appointment. The Government appoints one of the independent members; it does not add a functionary to the chair.
• Mixing up the Central Advisory Board under section 8 with the Advisory Board under section 7. The composition rule is the same, the level is not.
• Reading the one-third cap as applying to the employer or employee representatives. It applies only to the independent members; the two representative blocs are equal to each other.
• Carrying across the design of the Employees’ Provident Funds Act, whose section 5A simply has the Central Government appoint a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman with no independence requirement. Different statutes chair their bodies differently.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under section 8(2) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the independent persons on the Central Advisory Board shall not exceed

  • (a)one-fourth of its total number of members
  • (b)one-third of its total number of members
  • (c)one-half of its total number of members
  • (d)two-thirds of its total number of members

  Answer(b) one-third of its total number of members

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which section of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 requires the appropriate Government to appoint an Advisory Board to co-ordinate the work of committees and sub-committees appointed under section 5?

  • (a)Section 5
  • (b)Section 7
  • (c)Section 8
  • (d)Section 9

  Answer(b) Section 7