Section-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
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