Supreme Court of India for Employees
-Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia
Are
you getting less salary paid by the employer? Are you getting less pension than
your entitlement from the employer? As per constitutional provisions in India,
the employees are entitled for get salaries and pensions on time, in case, the
payments as per their entitlement are delayed, appropriate interest must be
paid for delayed payments. The Supreme Court of India observed in a lot of
cases and directed the Government to pay the entitled amount of salaries and pension
with an interest at an appropriate rate.
The
State Courts around the India, also allow the Public Interest Litigation (PIL)
and most of the time, decisions are given in favour of the employees.
Section 4(5) of the Payment of Gratuity
Act 1972
The section
is applicable on both the regular as well as contractual employees. Section 7
of the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 is also useful for the employees, who are
paid less amount of gratuity, may claim balance amount with an interest @18%
per annum.
Equal
Pay for Equal Work to Employees
In November 2016, most of the Government organizations passed
the ruling for granting equal pay for equal work to the employees working on
temporary or contractual positions in the offices of Government. Human dignity
should not be violated and the inequality towards employees for getting more
work from contractual or temporary employees should be stopped. There are a lot
of organizations, in which there are two categories of employees, one is those
who are working on a regular basis and another category belongs to those who
are working on a contract basis. The employees working on a regular basis enjoy
relative job security and higher wages.
Arbitrary Decisions of Management to
Terminate Contractual Job
Yes, the Court has the right to interfere in the matter of
terminating a contractual job if the decision is arbitrary. In a decision, the
high court of Orissa ordered to reinstate an employee of Grid Corporation of
Orissa Limited, whose contractual job was terminated.
Court Labour Act 1970
protects contractual employees from exploitation
The
contractual employees have rights under Court Labour Act 1970, to some extent
only. Any organization which hires or employs 20 or more employees on contract,
it has to register under the Court Labour Act
1970. It is worth to mention that the organizations or employers not registered
under Court Labour Act 1970 and hiring 20 or more employees, have to comply
with the rules of the labour law and ensure good working environment to the
employees. In case, the employees are hired or employed on contract for a
tenure more than 3 months, to each employee, an identity card as employee will
be required to issue. In case, the tenure of employment is more than 6 months,
it will be required to provide rest room to the employees and facility of
canteen for getting commodities at fair rates. In case, there are more than 10
women employees, it will be required to ensure separate room to rest for such
employees. The employer will keep a separate attendance register or record for
the contract employees and for the employees with employment more than 6
months, the employees will be provided leaves and other benefits entitled to
the employees as per labour law.
Disclaimer - The
content of this document reflects the views of the author on basis of facts and
decisions of the Supreme Court of India; use of the decisions is must to claim
the benefits. For any further queries, kindly comment at the end of this
document.
