Pay minimum wages to workers unable to report to work due to lockdown: HC

A single bench of justice Ravindra Ghuge while hearing a clutch of petitions challenging a March 23 notification by the ministry of Home Affairs, Union of India wherein section 10 (2) of the Disaster Management Act has been invoked.

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has directed industries employing daily wage earners to continue paying to those workers who are unable to report for work due to the national lockdown, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The court has however held that if the workers fail to report for work in areas where lockdown is lifted, the industries will be at liberty to deduct wages.

The court has however held that if the workers fail to report for work in areas where lockdown is lifted, the industries will be at liberty to deduct wages. (HT file photo)

A single bench of justice Ravindra Ghuge while hearing a clutch of petitions challenging a March 23 notification by the ministry of Home Affairs, Union of India wherein section 10 (2) of the Disaster Management Act has been invoked. The section ensures that workers, including the migrants are paid their monthly wages by the employers taking into account the peculiar situation on account of Covid-19. The petitions further pray that though they are willing to offer work and workers are willing to work, due to the lockdown the units are shut or working at reduced pace. Hence the prayer for exemption of paying monthly wages for the period of restriction of manufacturing activities.

However, after the union of India and the state informed the court that the Supreme Court was seized of a similar petition and the Kerala high court had stayed an order of the finance department to pay salaries in a deferred manner, the bench said that it was not inclined to interfere.

Thereafter, the advocate for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners were willing to pay 50% of the gross wages or the minimum rates of wages prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act, whichever is higher. The court accepted the same and held, “It is clarified that since the State of Maharashtra has partially lifted the lock down recently in certain industrial areas in the State of Maharashtra, the workers would be expected to report for duties as per the shift schedules subject to adequate protection, from Corona Virus infections, by the employer.”

The court also allowed managements to deduct wages of workers who voluntarily remained absent by following procedure laid down in Law while initiating such action. This would apply even to areas where there may not have been a lock down. Thus, saying the matter was posted for further hearing on May 18.