1. Employment

Table 1.1: Statistics relate to all factories  employing 10 or more workers with the aid of power and 20 or more workers without the aid of power and to the establishments declared as factories by State Governments under Section 85 of the Factories Act, 1948.

Table 1.2 :  Statistics furnished are based on the annual reports/returns received from States/Union Territories under the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 and the figures indicate average daily employment in Plantations. The employment data relate only to the plantations/estates submitted returns.

Table 1.3 :  The data collected under the various Acts are given in this table.  The figures are not complete or comparable over time due to varying response rates from primary units from year to year. The information is submitted by  various State Governments.

2. Wages and Earnings

Tables 2.1 & 2.2 :  The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 was enacted to regulate payment of wages to workers employed in industries and to ensure a speedy and effective remedy to them against illegal deductions and /or unjustified delay caused in paying wages to them. The wage ceiling under Payment of Wages Act, 1936 was fixed at Rs.16.00./- p.m. in  1982  This limit was enhanced to Rs. 6500/-p.m.vide notification No 1577 dated 9.11.2005 and further enhanced to Rs 10000/- p.m .vide Notification No.1380 dated 8.8.2007. The figures are compiled as per National Industrial Classification 2004 with effect from 1.1.2006 and earlier were compiled as per NIC 1998  

Table 2.3 : The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 provides for fixation/periodic revision of minimum wages in employment's where labour is vulnerable to exploitation.  The minimum wages system serves a useful purpose in preventing workers' exploitation in terms of payment of unduly low wage and helps in reducing inequalities in the standard of living of different social groups of workers by statutorily prescribing minimum wage rates.  This helps in reducing poverty and improving the position of low paid wage earners in the sweated industries.

3.  Prices

Table 3.1 (a) and (b)

All-India Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers on base 2001=100 was introduced with effect from January, 2006 index, which replaced earlier series on base: 1982=100. In the new series, various improvements such as increase in the number of centres from 70 to 78, increase in number of markets from 226 to 289,  increase in number of items priced have been incorporated over 1982 series. For further details reference may be made to April, 2006 issue of the Indian Labour Journal. Table 3.1(a) depicts annual average of All-India Consumer Price Index Numbers and month wise All India General and Food index for Industrial Workers on base 2001=100. Tables 3.1 (b) depicts Centre-wise Annual Averages  and  Linking  Factors of all centres (General) between 1982 and 2001 series. 

Table 3.2 :  Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural and Rural Labourers on base 1986-87=100  are presented in this table.

4. Trade Unions

Tables 4.1 & 4.2 :  The data refer to trade unions submitted returns and registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926. The registration under the Act is not compulsory. The coverage of statistics is also incomplete due to varying  response rate from year to year.

5. Industrial Disputes

Tables 5.1 to 5.11 :  The figures on industrial disputes relate to disputes resulting in work-stoppages and involving 10 or more workers and are exclusive of political or sympathetic strikes.

6. Accidents, Safety and Absenteeism

Table 6.1 :  Figures of injuries in factories relate to number of persons receiving injuries as a result of accidents in factories. Only those injuries from industrial accidents or occupational diseases are recorded by reason, in which persons affected are prevented from attending to work for a period of 48 hours or more. The data relate to only factories submitted returns.

Table 6.2 :  Absenteeism rates given in the table represent percentage of mandays lost due to absence to the corresponding total mandays scheduled to work. The mandays schedules to work is arrived at by adding the mandays actually worked and the mandays lost on account of absence of the workers due to some reasons or the other.

7. Social Security

Table 7.1 :  Data relate  to compensated injuries under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923. Compensation is payable to Workers in scheduled employments in respect of accidents resulting in death or disablement for more than 3 days. Compensation in case of injuries in establishments covered by the Employees’ State Insurance Act is paid under that Act and not under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The geographical coverage of data has varied from year to year. The rates of compensation have been enhanced with effect from 8.12.2000.

Table 7.2 :  Data are based on annual returns under the Maternity Benefits Act. In establishments covered by the ESI Act, the maternity benefit is paid under that act and not under the Maternity Benefits Act. The geographical coverage of the figures has varied from year to year.

8. International Comparison

Tables 8.1 to 8.5 : The data in these tables have been taken from the website of the International Labour Organisation For notes regarding limitations, coverage, survey methods, classifications and other details, the readers are requested to refer to the relevant sections of the website of the International Labour Organisation (www.ilo.org)..