Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
4. Duty of employer to pay equal remuneration
to men and women workers for same work or work of a similar nature.
(1) No employer shall pay to any worker,
employed by him in an establishment or employment, remuneration, whether
payable in cash or in kind, at rates less favorable than those at which
remuneration is paid by him to the workers of the opposite sex in such
establishment or employment for performing the same work or work of a similar
nature.
(2) No employer shall, for the purpose of
complying with the provisions of sub-section (1), reduce the rate of
remuneration of any worker.
(3) Where, in an establishment on employment,
the rates of remuneration payable before the commencement of this Act for men
and women workers for the same work or work of a similar nature are different
only on the ground of sex, then the higher (in cases where there are only two
rates), or, as the case may be, the highest (in cases where there are more than
two rates) of such rates shall be the rate at which remuneration shall be payable,
on and from such commencement, to such men and women workers.
PROVIDED that nothing in this sub-section shall
be deemed to entitle a worker to the revision of the rate of remuneration
payable to him or her with reference to the service rendered by him or her
before the commencement of this Act.
Comment: It is lastly urged on behalf of the
petitioner that the enforcement of the Act will be highly prejudicial to the
management, since its financial position is not satisfactory and the management
is not able to pay equal remuneration to both male Stenographers and female
Stenographers. The Act does not permit the management to pay to a section of
its employees doing the same work or a work of similar nature lesser pay
contrary to section 4(1) of the Act only because it is not able to pay equal
remuneration to all. The applicability of the Act does not depend upon the
financial ability of the management to pay equal remuneration as provided by
it. AIR 1987 SUPREME COURT 1281, Mackinnon Mackenzie and Co. Ltd.v. Audrey
D'Costa