Labour Law Gazette Notifications

Delhi

The Delhi Minimum Wages Notification Annulment Judgment

The Delhi high court by its Judgement on 4th August 2018 has quashed the Notifications issued by Delhi Government bearing no. F-13(16)/MW/1/2008/Lab/ 1859 dated 15th September, 2016 constituting the Minimum Wages Advisory Committee for all scheduled employments and the Notification bearing no. F.Addl.LC/Lab/MW/2016 dated 3rd of March 2017 revising minimum rates of wages for all classes of workmen/employees in all scheduled employments. Hence employers are not bound or have to compulsorily pay the Minimum wages as per the aforementioned notification and those employers who have not effected the revision and are paying above the Minimum wages notified prior to the March 3, 2017 are fully compliant. And in further directions issued by the Delhi High Court on this Judgement has stated that those Employers who have already complied with the Minimum Wages as notified on 3rd of March 2017 cannot recover the wages from employees to whom it has been paid. The employers who had revised the wages to comply with the Minimum Wages as per the quashed notification cannot automatically revert back to then existing wages, because the wages is part of employment contract that cannot be significantly altered just for the reason that Minimum wages notification has been quashed and any reduction in the wages of the employees may have implications on other statutes as well. And when an employer is providing better benefits than statutory requirements, then that cannot changed just for the reason of the fact that statute provided for a lesser benefit. It is advisable for the Employers to await further action by the Delhi Government, whether they would prefer an appeal against this Judgment or reconstitute the Minimum Wages advisory committee and try to follow the process that overcomes all the issues mentioned in the judgement and might come back with a notification that reiterated the Minimum Wages as per March 2017 notification