Mumbai Trade Unions intervene in Plea seeking Exemption from Payment of Full Wages, Says "Workers are entitled to wages as Per Contract"

A group of Mumbai-based trade union organisations have moved the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in a petition filed by a textile firm challenging the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Maharashtra Government order directing industries to pay wages to workers during the lockdown period..Mumbai-based Trade Union Joint Action Committee, Trade Union Centre of India and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha through Advocate Aparna Bhat has in their intervening application stated that March 29 order of MHA, and the March 31 order of the Maharashtra Government directing employers to refrain from deducting wages during the lockdown period were orders "in an emergent situation to deal with a disaster like COVID19" and that there exists “power to issue such an order” under the Disaster Management Act..On April 18, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court by Mumbai-based textile company Nagreeka Exports Limited challenging the constitutional validity of orders passed by the MHA and the Maharashtra government ordering payment of salaries to workers amid the COVID-19 lockdown..Set aside MHA, Maharashtra govt orders compelling payment of full wages during Covid lockdown: Textile company moves SC.The company had submitted that it had to face major losses to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore due to the lockdown. If they are compelled to pay full salaries, then there would “far reaching consequences", the plea states..However, the intervention application by the trade unions contend that workers are paid under a contract and that the contract states that workers are entitled to wages as long as he is ready to work not dependent on whether the company can provide him with work or not..The contract is that the worker will get his wages as long as he is employed and is ready to work. It cannot be read into the contract that he will not be entitled to wages if the employer is unable to provide him with work. The establishments which are shut because they are prohibited from working during the lockdown. In those establishments where they are permitted to work, the workers are attending work as per the permissions givenIntervention Application.The plea further states that even though the workers are not given work during lockdown, they are “expected to abide with all other terms of the contract such as not taking employment elsewhere, not disclosing trade secrets to rivals, etc.”One of the reasons that the trade union organisations have indicated towards them being made a party to the case is though most of the industrial functions have closed down, “all expenses of the workers remain fixed and unchanged, which include school fees, rent, loan repayments, electricity, food, etc”..Nagreeka Exports had claimed in its writ petition that it would pay 50% of Basic + D.A. without other allowances and payments to the workers if the government order is set aside by the top court.However the trade unions have contended that it would amount to only 25% of gross wages.“50% of Basic + D.A. without other allowances and payments would amount to an even lesser percentage of gross wages. In many cases wages are structured in a deceptive manner wherein Basic + D.A. account for even less than 50% of Gross Wages. Thus, 50% of the same would amount to even less than 25% of Gross wages in such cases,” reads the intervention application..The intervenors further state that the textile firm has wholly missed the point that "all Class 4 State Government and Central Government employees have been exempted from any reduction in wages and that there is no larger burden being put on private employers than the state is taking onto itself.”.The Trade Unions also state that orders of MHA and Maharashtra Government are appropriate measures meant to safeguard the basic rights and sustenance of poor and neglected workers in the face of severe and apparent social and economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 lockdown..[READ INTERVENTION APPLICATION]