A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme court seeking directions to quash the notifications issued by the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat due to which Industrial Units were exempted from various provisions of labour laws such as section 5 of the Factories Act, section 36- B of the Industrial Disputes Act.
The exemptions from the provisions of the pre-constitution statutes have been granted by way of executive orders by various State Governments to facilitate economic activities to the detriment of the workers and advantage of the employers in view of the global pandemic “COVID-19”.
Petitioner is working as a freelance journalist, and also works for the welfare and social upliftment of the poor fellow citizens. He had filed the petition praying for appropriate directions to the respondent governments of various states restraining them from granting various exemptions under different legislations regarding labour laws extending the maximum working daily/weekly hours, deprivation of rights to approach courts of law in case of Industrial Disputes, exemption to factories from inspection by the departmental inspectors and various provisions enacted for the welfare of the workmen.
Its stated in the petition that various statutes constituting “Labour Laws” are benevolent legislations intended to protect the “Oppressed Class” by the “Oppressor Class”. However, in the present circumstances, the State is depriving the “Oppressed Class” from the welfare measures, which are already available to them for facilitating the “Oppressor Class”, that too when the former is worst affected by the global Pandemic “COVID-19” having lost their livelihood and are compelled to lead their lives at the mercy of none but the Almighty God.
Section 5 of the Factories Act, 1948 provides as under: –
“Power to exempt during public emergency – In any case of public emergency the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, exempt any factory or class or description of factories from all or any of the provisions of this Act [except section 67] for such period and subject to such conditions as it may think fit: PROVIDED that no such notification shall be made for a period exceeding three months at a time.
Explanation: For the purposes of this section “public emergency” means a grave emergency whereby the security of India or of any part of the territory thereof is threatened, whether by war or external aggression or internal disturbance”.
The petitioner mentioned that various State Governments have proceeded to exempt numerous industrial units from the provisions of various labour welfare Statutes only in view of the current pandemic situation, which includes increase in daily and weekly working hours, deprivation of right of workmen to approach Courts of law, routine inspection of industrial units by the Factories Inspectors, provisions regarding various basic human facilities to the workmen at the workplace, etc.
Government of Uttar Pradesh by exercising powers under section 5 of the Factories Act, the Labour Department Section – 3,issued Notification on 8th May, 202, whereby it exempted all the factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948 from the provisions under section 51, 54, 55, 56 and 59 of the Act for the period from 20.04.2020 to 19.07.2020 on the following condition –
1. No adult worker shall be allowed or required to work in a factory for more than twelve hours in any day and seventy-two hours in any week.
2. The period of works of adult workers in a factory each day shall be so fixed that no period shall exceed six hours and that no worker shall work for more than six hours before he had an interval for rest of at least half an hour.
3. Wages shall be in a proportion of the existing wages. (e.g. If wages for eight hours are 80 rupees, then proportionate wages for twelve hours will be 120 rupees).
“The action of the various State Governments (respondent Nos. 2 to 4) in granting exemptions to the factories registered under Factories Act, 1948 in purported exercise of powers conferred under section 5 of the said Act in absence of the “Public Emergency” as explained under the said section is illegal for denying equal protection of law to the poor workmen without following the due process established by law and thereby violates the provisions of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and thus, liable to be quashed”, said in the petition.
Therefore, the petitioner prayed for declaring the notifications issued by the State Governments respectively ultra-vires the provisions of section 5 of the Factories Act, 1948 and Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India consequently quashing them.
-India Legal Bureau