<p>The Supreme Court, on Friday, agreed to examine a PIL for a direction to the Centre and all states to protect all such employees facing salary cuts and termination following the unprecedented lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.</p>.<p>A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and BR Gavai decided to tag the plea along with a similar pending matter.</p>.<p>The Court, however, asked senior advocate Devadatt Kamat to delete advocate Rajesh Inamdar as one of the petitioners.</p>.<p>In their plea, Inamdar and Harpreet Saluja, General Secretary, National Information Technology Employees Sena, wanted the government to ensure that employers in the private sector at least make payment of a subsistence salary to the employees, without terminating them unreasonably and illegally against their rights under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution.</p>.<p>The senior advocate was assisted by advocates Inamdar, Amit Pai and Aishwarya Rai B.</p>.<p>In their plea, the petitioners contended that although the government was taking necessary steps to provide possible assistance to the needy on priority like daily wagers, migrant workers, small businesses, the corporate employers have been reluctant and are acting inhuman in fulfilling their duty towards the nation and assist it by ensuring timely payments of full wages and salaries.</p>.<p>They also wanted initiation of action against all such companies under Section 51 and 58 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which were in breach of orders and advisories issued by the Ministry Labour and Employment on March 29 and the Union government on March 29, 2020.</p>.<p>The petitioners said that the economic and social impact of unregulated mass terminations and delayed payment of salaries or pay cuts would be extremely severe and would have a very large and serious human impact particularly on several thousands of people in the middle class bracket.</p>.<p>The employees working in various IT/ ITES companies for over several years have been informed over phones calls about their termination without even following the procedure envisaged under various enactments viz Industrial Disputes Act etc. Moreover, such terminations are illegal, unreasonable and based on convenience, they said in their petition.</p>.<p>The petitioners claimed no procedure like notice period, intimation to government authorities, payment of retrenchment compensation, payment of gratuity, leave encashment, etc. has been undertaken by the companies. Even though the employees were in no way responsible for the present situation, they were at the receiving end.</p>.<p>"Mass termination and the withholding of the salaries of the employees during these severe times is contrary to public policy, and directly affecting the right to livelihood of several persons," they contended.</p>.<p>The petitioners also wanted immediate financial assistance to all such employees whose companies have been closed after the lockdown.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court, on Friday, agreed to examine a PIL for a direction to the Centre and all states to protect all such employees facing salary cuts and termination following the unprecedented lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.</p>.<p>A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and BR Gavai decided to tag the plea along with a similar pending matter.</p>.<p>The Court, however, asked senior advocate Devadatt Kamat to delete advocate Rajesh Inamdar as one of the petitioners.</p>.<p>In their plea, Inamdar and Harpreet Saluja, General Secretary, National Information Technology Employees Sena, wanted the government to ensure that employers in the private sector at least make payment of a subsistence salary to the employees, without terminating them unreasonably and illegally against their rights under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution.</p>.<p>The senior advocate was assisted by advocates Inamdar, Amit Pai and Aishwarya Rai B.</p>.<p>In their plea, the petitioners contended that although the government was taking necessary steps to provide possible assistance to the needy on priority like daily wagers, migrant workers, small businesses, the corporate employers have been reluctant and are acting inhuman in fulfilling their duty towards the nation and assist it by ensuring timely payments of full wages and salaries.</p>.<p>They also wanted initiation of action against all such companies under Section 51 and 58 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which were in breach of orders and advisories issued by the Ministry Labour and Employment on March 29 and the Union government on March 29, 2020.</p>.<p>The petitioners said that the economic and social impact of unregulated mass terminations and delayed payment of salaries or pay cuts would be extremely severe and would have a very large and serious human impact particularly on several thousands of people in the middle class bracket.</p>.<p>The employees working in various IT/ ITES companies for over several years have been informed over phones calls about their termination without even following the procedure envisaged under various enactments viz Industrial Disputes Act etc. Moreover, such terminations are illegal, unreasonable and based on convenience, they said in their petition.</p>.<p>The petitioners claimed no procedure like notice period, intimation to government authorities, payment of retrenchment compensation, payment of gratuity, leave encashment, etc. has been undertaken by the companies. Even though the employees were in no way responsible for the present situation, they were at the receiving end.</p>.<p>"Mass termination and the withholding of the salaries of the employees during these severe times is contrary to public policy, and directly affecting the right to livelihood of several persons," they contended.</p>.<p>The petitioners also wanted immediate financial assistance to all such employees whose companies have been closed after the lockdown.</p>
