Suggest legal remedy

Your friend may not be the only employee not paid salary, and there may be a group and hundreds may not be receiving.  They have to form as a group, mobilize some amount, and entrust this to a Labour consultant and fight it out through Labour court or jurisdictional court.

If an employee is not receiving his/her remuneration as per the employment agreement, can approach the Labour Commissioner or file a civil suit for arrears in salary. An employee cannot be given wages less than the legal minimum wages, as per law.

The query suggests it to be purely hypothetical!

please come with complete facts.  why he does not get salary?

whether others are getting? whether he is on managerial post?  what he has so far done to receive salary?

Why is he working if he is not paid salary for two years, how is he managing his routine expense without salary.

Did he not approach any advocate so far on this, if not  then he an approach the labor commissioner with a complaint against the company and seek the relief of arrears of salary and other perks that he is entitled 

These queries are new due to Covid situation as many organizations are not operating to it's full capacity and there was a severe crunch for funds.  The understanding between employer and employee was either he receives partial amount or nil depending on cash generation.   Once there is improvement after covid, the can continue the employment as regular employee.  To avoid termination and such benefits both employer and employees agreed for this arrangement.  Those, who wanted to go against such arrangement or exploring recovery of the salary dues.  This may be a query on this assumption.

Hello, Greetings of the day!  

Even though the employee works in a private company, he has the right to claim wages from his employer if there has been non-payment of wages due to the employer’s fault. The first remedy that the employee can avail is that he can approach the employer within the premises before taking up any legal action informing him about the non-payment of wages. If there is no action from the employer's side, the next step can be approaching the labor commissioner who can help in the reconciliation of the matter.  

If these remedies are of no help, then the aggrieved party can approach the labor court against the employer by filing the suit under Section 33C of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 which states that any employee can claim unpaid dues from his employer which is computed by the labor court. The labour court has to dispose of the matter within 30 days.  

Another remedy available to the employee is that he can also claim his wages under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936. Section 15 of the Act says that if there is a delay in Payment Of Wages, the appropriate government can appoint Commissioner for Workmen’s Compensation; or any officer of the Central Government exercising functions as, Regional Labour Commissioner; or Assistant Labour Commissioner or any appropriate authority for the settlement of the dispute.  

If the employees’ salary is above Rs 18,000 per month, then he can directly approach the civil court under Section 37 of the Civil Procedure Code for the speedy recovery of the dues money.  

Best Regards,    

Vasundhara Singh   

Law Student