KOCHI: A Division Bench of the High Court on Thursday said there could be no insistence on paying minimum wages through bank accounts or the Wages Protection System (WPS) of the Labour Department.
A Division Bench comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice V G Arun issued the order while partly allowing the appeals challenging a single judge bench order that upheld the state government’s amendment to the Kerala Minimum Wages Rules stipulating payment of wages via bank accounts to employees of shops, private hospitals,
star hotels and few other business sectors. The government had introduced the WPS to ensure payment of minimum wages to every class of employee. Advocate Benny P Thomas, counsel for the petitioner, said the power conferred on the Centre under the Minimum Wages Act did not extend to the prescriptions made in the amendment. “There could be no insistence on paying wages only via bank accounts. The requirements necessitate a cumbersome procedure, which does not serve any purpose,” submitted the counsel.The bench directed that employers s may be granted three months to commence uploading of Form XIV in WPS without the employee’s bank account number. It said while the department cannot insist on payment via WPS, employers can voluntarily make such payments through the system.