Denying overtime wages affront to worker’s right to life: SC quashes Gujarat govt’s order

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the Gujarat authorities’s determination to exempt industries from paying additional time wages and growing the working hours of workers by citing the general public emergency and financial downturn attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic and the next lockdown.

In a strongly worded order, a three-judge bench headed by justice DY Chandrachud mentioned {that a} employee’s proper to life can’t be deemed conditional on the mercy of the employer or the federal government and the appropriate to additional time wages and respectable working circumstances underneath the Factories Act of 1948 can’t be curtailed citing such grounds.

“The notifications (exempting factories from the purview of Factories Act), in denying humane working conditions and overtime wages provided by law, are an affront to the workers’ right to life and right against forced labour…Financial losses cannot be offset on the weary shoulders of the labouring worker, who provides the backbone of the economy,” the bench, which additionally comprised justices Indu Malhotra and KM Joseph, mentioned.

The state can not allow employees to be exploited in a fashion that renders the hard-won protections of the Factories Act illusory and the constitutional promise of social and financial democracy right into a paper tiger, the court docket added.

It additionally alluded to the hardships confronted by employees and migrant labourers because of Covid-19 and the lockdown imposed by the federal government.

“The Covid-19 pandemic in India was accompanied with an immense migrant worker crisis, where several workers (including workers employed or contracted with factories) were forced to abandon their cities of work due to the halt in production which cut off their meagre source of income. The notifications in question legitimize the subjection of workers to onerous working conditions at a time when their feeble bargaining power stands whittled by the pandemic,” the judgment mentioned.

The labour and employment division of Gujarat had issued a notification on April 17 underneath Section 5 of the Factories Act to exempt all models registered underneath the Act “from various provisions relating to weekly hours, daily hours, intervals for rest etc. for adult workers”.

The said purpose of the notification was to supply “certain relaxations for industrial and commercial activities” from April 20 to July 19. Another notification was issued on July 20 extending the comfort till October 19.

The notifications allowed factories to extend the day by day restrict of working hours from 9 to 12 with a 30-minute break after each 6 hours versus each 5 hours earlier than the notification. It additionally did away with the requirement to provide double the wages for additional time work and offered that wages proportionate to the unusual fee might be paid even for additional time work.

The notification was issued underneath part 5 of the Factories Act, which permits the federal government to exempt industries from the purview of Factories Act on grounds of a public emergency. Section 5 defines public emergency as one which threatens the inner safety of the nation whether or not by conflict or exterior aggression and even inside disturbances.

Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha and the Trade Union Centre of India had moved the highest court docket difficult the notifications.

The apex court docket held that part 5 can’t be invoked to supply a blanket exemption to all factories citing the Covid 19 pandemic and the contagion can’t be thought-about a public emergency threatening nationwide safety.

“The pandemic has put a severe burden on existing, particularly public health, infrastructure and has led to a sharp decline in economic activities. However, it has not affected the security of India, or of a part of its territory in a manner that disturbs the peace and integrity of the country. The economic hardships caused by Covid–19 certainly pose unprecedented challenges to governance. However, such challenges are to be resolved by the State Governments within the domain of their functioning under the law, in coordination with the Central Government,” the court docket mentioned.

Unless the edge of an financial hardship is so excessive that it results in disruption of public order and threatens the safety of India or of part of its territory, recourse can’t be taken to such emergency powers, that are for use sparingly underneath the legislation, the court docket added.

The petitioners had argued that Section 5 of the Factories Act offers for exemption solely in circumstances of public emergency and that too for a manufacturing unit or class of factories and it doesn’t empower the state to supply a blanket exemption for all factories.

The court docket accepted this argument, ruling that part 5 of the Factories Act couldn’t have been invoked to problem a blanket notification that exempted all factories from complying with humane working circumstances and satisfactory compensation for additional time, as a response to a pandemic that didn’t lead to an “internal disturbance” of a nature that posed a “grave emergency.”

“We accordingly allow the writ petition and quash the notifications dated April 17 and July 20. We direct that overtime wages shall be paid, in accordance with the provisions of Section 59 of the Factories Act, to all eligible workers who have been working since the issuance of the notifications,” the court docket dominated.