1 Apr 2026
Uttar Pradesh directs interim wages after the Noida unrest, from 1 April 2026
Order No. 374/36-2-2026-2041256 of 17.04.2026, made under section 3(b) of the United Provinces Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 rather than the Minimum Wages Act, directs as interim relief that wages be paid at new rates in employments where minimum wages are otherwise fixed. It classifies the State in three categories — Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad; districts with a Nagar Nigam; and the rest — with monthly totals of basic and variable dearness allowance of ₹13,690, ₹15,059 and ₹16,868 in the first, ₹13,006, ₹14,306 and ₹16,025 in the second, and ₹12,356, ₹13,590 and ₹15,224 in the third, for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled work. It supersedes the Labour Commissioner’s order of 25.03.2026 except for brick kilns. The order records that the revisions due under the Minimum Wages Act in 2019 and 2024 were never carried out, and that the State’s rates still rest on a consumer price index average for July to December 2012.
U.P. Act XIV of 1965
Uttar Pradesh has a labour welfare fund and no contribution to it
Section 3(2) of the Uttar Pradesh Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1965 builds the Fund from fines realised from employees, unpaid accumulations, employer welfare funds transferred in, State Government grants, voluntary donations and borrowings. The Act sets no employee or employer contribution, so nothing is deducted from a payslip for it. U.P. Act 23 of 2024 raised the supervisory wage ceiling in the definition of an employee to ₹24,000 a month and added semi-skilled work. Coverage under section 2(4) is a factory, a plantation or a trade establishment employing the number of persons the rules prescribe.