Employers and employees to negotiate themselves for wages during lockdown: Says Supreme Court of India

INTRODUCTION 

The Supreme Court, while hearing a bunch of writ petitions challenging the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification on payment of wages, has observed that some negotiations have to happen between the employers and their workers to work out on what has to be done for the salary for these 54 days spent in lockdown. The Supreme Court on Thursday, June 4, has reserved its order for June 12, on the batch of Writ Petitions filed. The Centre told the Apex Court that the payment of wages to workers during this lockdown period is a matter between employers and employees and it further stated that it would not intervene in this matter. And in contrast to this, the Centre directed payment of full wages during the lockdown.

The Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the government from taking coercive action for the time being against employers who don’t pay workers their entire salary during the lockdown, in violation of a ministry of home affairs notification of March 29 that directed them to pay full wages. It also stated that all parties are given liberty to file written submissions within 3 days. The Bench consisted of three judges namely Justice Ashok Bhushan along with Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.R. Shah. The Attorney General of India Mr. K.K Venugopal Rao was allowed by the Supreme Court to submit a short note regarding the validity of the March 29 MHA notification.

CONCLUSION 

The Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said as the people were migrating after the lockdown, the government came out with the notification to ensure that the workers are paid to help them in staying put at the workplaces. He also referred to the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act to argue the validity of the March 29 circular. The Centre also filed an affidavit justifying its March 29 direction saying that the employers claiming incapacity in paying salaries must be directed to furnish their audited balance sheets and accounts in the court. The government has said that the March 29 directive was a “temporary measure to mitigate the financial hardship” of employees and workers, especially contractual and casual, during the lockdown period.