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On Thursday, the Supreme Court passed an interim order directing the government not to take any coercive action against companies and employers for violation of its Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) circular of 29 March on the payment of full salaries to employees for the lockdown period. In its circular, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had asked all employers to pay their employees wages.
The Secretary (Labour & Employment) also wrote to state chief secretaries to advise employers not to terminate employees from work or lower their salaries in the pandemic's challenging situation.
In the proceedings conducted through the video conference A Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah expressed concern about the circular of the MHA, stating that 100% wage pay was directed in the direction of prosecution of offending employers and the bench said there was concern that employees should not be left without wages, but there could be a situation in which the industry may not have the money to pay and, therefore, a balance was necessary.
Attorney General K K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said the government came out with the notification as the people migrated after the shutdown to make sure the workers are paid to help them live in the workplaces.In arguing the validity of the March 29 circular, the top law officer referred to the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act.
Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, appearing in one of the cases, said that the direction of the MHA should not be quashed and that the employees should be paid full wages for the lockdown duration. In the present circumstances, the concept of no job no pay is not applicable, particularly when there is a lockdown, she said.
The Center also submitted an affidavit justifying its direction of March 29 stating that employers claiming incapacity to pay wages must be directed to furnish their audited balance sheets and accounts in court.
The government said that during the lockdown period, the March 29 directive was a "temporary measure to mitigate the financial hardship" of employees and workers, particularly contractual and casual, and the authority with effect from May 18 revoked the directions.
On May 15, the top court asked the government not to take coercive action against companies and employers who are unable to pay their employees full wages during the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The bench was hearing pleas including the one filed against the direction of the Centre by Small Scale Industrial Manufacturers Association.
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