Termination of Jobs Due to Coronavirus: Supreme Court Agrees to Examine Issue of Layoffs of Employees

As the furor over the termination of jobs due to Coronavirus crisis in India grows, the Supreme Court has agreed to intervene in the matter. The top court today agreed to examine the issue pertaining to mass termination of employees and withholding or deduction of salaries of IT, ITes, BPO, and KPO by the employers during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The petition filed by the National Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) was argued by Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat and supported by Rajesh Inamdar, Amit Pai Advocates. The matter will now be heard on 15 May 2020.

The petition was filed as several citizens of the country complained of either wage cuts or getting terminated from their jobs due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. “Currently I am working in a school as a Teacher and due to Coronavirus everywhere there is a lockdown. I have got Whatsapp message from my school administration that they are discontinuing me from the job and without any prior notification they are discontinuing me suddenly giving probation period as a reason. What Can I do?” says Shweta Ganiger on DataQuest.

“Company in Noida is terminating employees in lockdown and giving the reason that company business is less due to corona crisis. Can they do it legally? Let me know. It’s specifically mentioned by them that it’s because of Corona. They have terminated 200 people. Can I go and complain somewhere ?” says Purvika.

“This epidemic is creating ruckus in everyone's life. We are losing our jobs. Sittings idle at home without money. Kicked out from company with the same COVID-19 reason,” says Gurkirat Singh. Over 100 such employees who have either been terminated from jobs or have received wage cuts have written to DataQuest so far.

These developments are against the appeal issued by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India that had asked both private and public organizations to not terminate jobs on the pretext of the prevailing conditions, stated viewers. “In this critical time of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, the Ministry of Labour and Employment advises all public and private employers to support their employees and workers,” says a letter circulated by Joint Secretary Kalpana Rajsinghot.

The Petition filed by NITES with the court was in regard to the implementation of advisories or directions issued by the Central Government and similar advisories issued by several other States which mandated payment of wages or salaries to the employees and also directed not to terminate any employees during this period.

Nevertheless, several IT companies during the lockdown have still been adopting mass termination, and some have even done the same over phone calls, say affected employees. “I am working with an IT company. Suddenly on 21 April, my company has informed employees over the phone that they were going to deduct a salary 50% salary for 3 months. The company is not giving any official communication on mail. How can they do this,” asked Rajesh on DataQuest.

That said, NITES, which is a union working for the welfare of IT, ITes, BPO, and KPO employees in India, has put forth all these arguments in its petition to the top court. The president of NITES, Dr. Raghunath Kuchik, has expressed satisfaction on the decision of the Supreme Court.