New Delhi/Mumbai, June 4 : The Supreme Court today kept for orders on June 12 a bunch of petitions challenging government circular of March 29 ordering companies in India to pay their workers full salary during the lockdown period and ordered the authorities not to take any coercive action against the companies/industries for not obeying the impugned circular until then.
The March 29 circular issued by the Ministry of Home affairs had asked the employers to pay their workers full salary without making any deductions for the period their establishments were under closure during the lockdown observed to control the spread of COVID-19.
The Secretary (Labour and Employment) had also written letters to the States asking them to advise the employers not to terminate the services of workers from jobs or reduce their salaries in the wake of closure of establishments due to the pandemic.
The petitions were heard through video conference by Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah who questioned the impugned circular of Ministry of Home Affairs observing that full payment of wages had been ordered with a direction that prosecution would be launched against the employers who did not obey the orders.
The judges observed, “We have reservations over this. Some discussion should be held to find out some solution for this period of time. A balance has to struck between wage payment for the lockdown period and protecting the industries.”
The Supreme Court was of the opinion that the circular was issued as the Government was concerned about non-payment of wages to workers during the lockdown period but at the same time it should be considered that in this situation there could be a scenario that the companies may not have had the means to pay as their businesses/establishments were closed down due to the pandemic. Therefore a balance needed to be struck between these two aspects.
Attorney General K K Venugopal argued on behalf of the Government that after the lockdown there were instances to show that workers were migrating and hence the Government came out with a circular to ensure that they got wages in full thereby encouraging them to stay at their places of work.
The Government harped on the provisions of National Disaster Management Act to justify the impugned circular.
J P Cama and Gobind Talreja, appearing for Twin City industrial Empoyers Association which has argued that the March 29 circular had mentioned National Disaster Management Act on the basis of which they were concerned about migrant workers only. The circular did not talk about all the workers who come under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act. Therefore this circular may concern only migrant workers and not in general all the workers.
The bench also asked the Union Government whether they had the powers to prosecute the employers for not paying full wages to workers in view of the fact that the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act had not been invoked.
One of the firms, Ficus Pax, argued that its business had come down to ten percent and it was finding it difficult to pay full wages to workers.
Senior Counsel, Indira Jaisingh, appearing for one of the parties, said Ministry of Home Affairs decision should not be quashed and the workers should be paid full wages for the period of lockdown.
After hearing submissions, the bench asked the parties to submit written submissions in the next three days.
