Payment of full wages during lockdown? SC asks Centre to respond within 4 weeks

Follow us on

The Supreme Court (SC) has asked Centre to file an affidavit within four weeks on the legality of March 29 circular that mandated payment of full wages during lockdown. Furthermore, SC has asked states to facilitate a settlement between firms and employees over wage payment and submit reports before labour commissioners.

"Industries and labourers need each other and efforts should be made to resolve the dispute over wage payments," SC said. "No industry can survive without workers."

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah said industries and employees need each other and they should sit together to arrive at a settlement on the issue of payment of wages.

The bench asked the state governments to facilitate such settlement process and file its report with the labour commissioners concerned.

It also asked the Centre to file an additional affidavit within four weeks with regard to the legality of Ministry of Home Affairs' March 29 circular which had mandated payment of full wages during the lockdown period.

The bench posted the petitions filed by various companies against the March 29 circular, for further hearing in last week of July.

The Supreme Court (SC) also heard pleas on various other matters including the border sealing issue between Delhi, Noida and Gurugram.