MHA Order for full payment of wages: No coercive action against employers says SC

The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict for June 12 on a batch of petitions challenging Central Government’s March 29 order asking employers to pay full wages to employees for the period of lockdown. The Supreme Court, passed an interim order and restrained any coercive action against any employer for violating the order passed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

A bench of Supreme Court Judges comprising of Justices – Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah passed the interim order.

Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal stated that the direction passed by the MHA was aimed at preventing human suffering amid the lockdown invoking powers under the Disaster Management Act.

A batch of petitions was filed in the Apex Court challenging the March 29 order of the MHA. The AG also stated that as people were migrating and wanted industries to continue. He also said that the migrants would have stayed only if they were to receive wages.

The Supreme Court bench raised concerns about the viability of the direction to pay the full amount of wages as industries and establishments were compulsorily shut down owing to the nationwide lockdown.

During the hearing, the Court observed that some negotiations have to happen between employers and workers to iron out what has to be done for the salary for 54 days during the COVID-19 lockdown. Earlier, on May 15 also, the Supreme Court had restrained the government from taking any coercive action for the time-being against companies and employers for not following the official direction to pay employees full wages for the period of the national lockdown.