WANCHOO, J. - (1.) THIS is an appeal by special leave by the workmen of Jessop Co. Ltd., against the award of the fourth industrial tribunal, West Bengal. There was a dispute between the appellant-workmen and their employer who is respondent 1 in the present appeal about a number of matters, which were referred for adjudication to the tribunal. In the present appeal we are concerned only with some of the matters which were in dispute before the tribunal; and they are these : (1) Grades and scales of pay (2) Dearness allowance for subordinate staff. (3) Overtime allowance. (4) Retiring age. (5) Gratuity scheme.
(2.) BESIDES , the appellants also challenge the date from which the award has been ordered to be brought into operation by the tribunal. The appellants wanted the existing scales of pay for clerks and subordinate staff to be substantially raised and in this connexion relied upon the scales of pay prevalent in Brooke Bond & Co., Ltd., Western India Match Company, Ltd., Imperial Tobacco Company, Ltd., and Volkart Brothers, Ltd. The tribunal however pointed out that there of these concerns on which the appellants relied were not comparable as they were not engineering concerns like respondent 1. It also pointed out that Volkart Brothers, Ltd., was mainly not an engineering concern, though it had some engineering business. The tribunal therefore mainly relied in this connexion on the award of the third engineering tribunal which dealt with the engineering industry in that part of the country and consequently made certain changes in the scales and grades of pay which were slightly more favourable to the appellants than the existing scales of pay.
(3.) AS to dearness allowance for the subordinate staff, the appellants claimed it at the rate of what is known as the Bengal Chamber of Commerce dearness allowance, which is meant for clerical staff at the head office and which the clerical staff in the present case getting. The tribunal however held that the Bengal Chamber of Commerce dearness allowance is not applicable to subordinate staff and following the awards of the three major engineering tribunals made certain changes in the dearness allowance in favour of the appellants, though it refused to grant the scale according to the Bengal Chamber of Commerce dearness allowance.As to overtime, the appellants claimed it at twice the ordinary rate of wages. The existing rate was one and a quarter of the basis rate of pay. The tribunal has allowed one and a half times the basic hourly wage for the workmen at the head office.;