Denial Of Due Wages By Way Of Non-Payment/Deferred Payment Infringes Upon The Cherished Right Of A Workman U/Art. 21 of the Constitution: Bombay HC [Read Order]

The Bombay High Court has held that financial difficulties faced by employers can be no ground for non-payment of due wages to workers. Court noted that Payment of due wages is a fundamental right of a worker under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Division bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice NR Borkar was hearing a writ petition filed by Hind Kamgar Sanghatana through its President Shantaram Kadam for non-payment of wages since December last year. The petitioner is a trade union claiming to represent 150 workers of M/s. India Steel Limited, which is a company engaged in the manufacture of steel bright bars and has a steel melting and rolling plant at Khopoli in Raigad district. The industrial plant of India Steel at Khopoli has two furnaces of 20 tonnes and 25 tonnes respectively, employing about 150 workers, both skilled and unskilled. According to the petitioners, workers were not paid wages from December 2019 onwards despite reporting for work regularly. Moreover, the company was fully operational and all its workers had reported for duty during the period from December 2019 to March 2020 but they did not receive any wages for this period. Though initially verbal instructions were issued by the said company to the workers to stop reporting for work from March 19, 2020, subsequently specific instructions were issued on March 23, 2020 calling upon the workmen not to report for work with effect from the next day. Petitioners have contended that the company was fully operational in its activities prior to the lockdown but halted its functioning from March 24 onwards due to declaration of lockdown. Subsequently, as per the guidelines of the central government dated April 15, industrial enterprises like the respondent company were permitted to commence operations being a permitted industrial establishment located in an industrial estate. But at the same time, the central government had made it abundantly clear that certain conditions were required to be fulfilled for restarting industrial activities. Such standard operating procedure and related guidelines were in force till May 18. Allegation of the petitioners is that such standard operating procedure and guidelines were not followed by the management of the company and industrial activities were carried out in complete contravention of the guidelines. As per order of the state government dated May 2, 2020, the industrial plant of the company was located in an orange zone. Workers reside at far-off places and not near the factory. Because of restrictions imposed on travelling, they could not commute from their residence to the factory premises as they did not have any transportation of their own. However, it was submitted on behalf of the petitioners that no arrangements were made by the company for transportation of the workers from their residence to the industrial plant or for stay of the workers in and around the factory premises. Although, some of the workers did manage to make the journey from their residence to the industrial plant on their own but they were prevented from entering through the main gates of the factory. Thereafter, acting on a complaint made by the petitioners that the company did not pay wages to the workers from December 2019 onwards, the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Raigad issued a show cause notice to the said company on May 4 stating that they had violated section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 and called upon the company to clear the due wages of the workers with immediate effect. Unfortunately, the respondent company has not complied with the said show cause notice. On the other hand, the respondent company issued a notice dated May 7 alleging that its plant was closed on March 20 and that the workers had decided to stay at home much before declaration of lockdown further alleging that the workers represented by the petitioners had initiated an illegal strike against the company. Workers were called upon to resume their duties. Reference was made to an industrial accident which took place on July 11, 2019 when the induction furnace got punctured and liquid metal started coming out. As a result fire had broken out in the plant. Because of the above accident, operations of the factory had come to a standstill for about 40 days leading to delayed payment of wages, Advocates Shailesh Naidu and Sairam Chandanani submitted on behalf of the respondent company. Whereas, Senior Advocate Gayatri Singh appeared on behalf of the petitioners and contended that the company had circulated a notice dated April 27, 2020 sanctioning only 45 workers to report for duty. This will only go to show that there was no strike by the workers. Had the workers been on strike, the question of calling the said group of workmen to report for duty would not have arisen, Singh argued. Regarding the fire incident, Adv Gayatri Singh submitted that the same has got no...

Denial Of Due Wages By Way Of Non-Payment/Deferred Payment Infringes Upon The Cherished Right Of A Workman U/Art. 21 of the Constitution: Bombay HC [Read Order]

Nitish Kashyap

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