SC clears air on arrears

New Delhi: An employee cannot claim wage arrears for a period he was absent from work without leave or without a justifiable reason, the Supreme Court has said.
The ruling came as the court set aside a Calcutta High Court order which had asked the Airports Authority of India to pay back wages to an assistant engineer who had stayed away from work for 10 years after he was transferred from Calcutta to Delhi.
A division bench of the high court had directed the airports authority to pay Shambhu Nath Das of Calcutta back wages from October 1985 to November 1995. Das had reported for duty at Delhi and served there for seven days. He then took leave from March 26, 1985, to April 12, 1985, citing his grandmother’s illness. But he did not rejoin work and kept seeking repeated leave extensions on medical grounds.
The airports authority refused to give him back wages, citing the principle of no work, no pay. Das moved high court and a division bench upheld his plea, but the apex court set aside the order.
15/06/08 The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Jun 2008