SC seeks government's reply on wages of MSME workers by May 15

NEW DELHI: Should workers voluntarily abstaining from work during the lockdown be paid full wages, a host of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) asked on Friday through separate petitions and the Supreme Court sought the Union government’s response by May 15.
The petitions were filed by Ficus Pax Pvt Ltd, which produces packaging material for pharmaceuticals and food industries employing nearly 1,000 contractual workers; Instruments and Chemicals Put Ltd catering to manufacturing and service sector having its factory in Haryana; and Technomin Constructions Ltd providing mining services to Hindustan Zinc Ltd in Rajasthan. All of them said they had paid full salary to all their workers till March 31.
Petitioners’ counsel Jeetender Gupta told a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai that the home ministry’s March 29 notification mandated every employer to provide full salary to its workers during the lockdown. “On one hand, petitioners’ businesses have come to a standstill due to lockdown and on the other hand, they are being compelled to pay full wages to workers for the entire lockdown period,” he said.