- (1.) The petitioners describe themselves as 'catering cleaners of Southern Railways represented by V. China Thambi and M. Mohan of the Vegetarian Refreshment Room, Central Station, Madras'. The petition is claimed to be filed in a representative capacity on behalf of about three hundred and odd catering cleaners working in the catering establishments in various railway junctions of the Southern Railway and in the pantry cars of long distance trains running under the control of the Southern Railway. Since a long time they have been agitating for the abolition of the Contract system under which they are employed to do cleaning work in the catering establishments and the pantry cars and for their absorption as regular employees of the principal employer, namely, the Southern Railway. They complain that they are not even paid minimum wages. They are paid a pittance averaging from Rs. 2.00/- to Rs. 2.50/- per day. Although the contract system has been abolished in almost all the other Railways, the Southern Railway persists in employing contract labour for cleaning its catering establishments and pantry cars. As the several representations made by them to the authorities concerned proved fruitless they have been forced to seek the intervention of this Court under Art. 32 of the Constitution to direct the respondents to exercise their powers under Section 10(1) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and to abolish the contract system in respect of catering cleaners in the Southern Railway and further to direct the respondents to the services of the existing catering employed in the catering establishments at various junctions and in the pantry cars of long distance trains and to absorb them as employees of the catering establishments of the Southern Railway. They also seek a direction to extend to them the service benefits presently available to other categories of employees in the catering establishments of the Railways.
(2.) We issued notice to the respondents on January 21, 1986. After some considerable time the writ petition was listed before us on August 5, 1986. We were informed at that time that in almost all the railways except the Southern Railway, the contract labour system had been abolished in regard to catering cleaners. We wondered why the Southern Railway could not also fall in line and directed the Southern Railway Administration to consider whether the contract labour system could not be abolished in the Southern Railway also and whether the services of the catering cleaners could not be suitably regularised. The learned counsel for the workmen complained before us that the workmen were not even being paid the minimum wages. As the Railway Administration was the principal employer, we directed the Railway Administration to take immediate steps to see that the minimum wages were paid to the catering cleaners. As the interim order of the Court regarding payment of wages was not complied with, the petition was adjourned from time to time. On April 19, 1986 we also made a further order that the Southern Railway Administration should not take any further action pursuant to the tenders invited by them for contract labour. On December 4, 1986 the Additional Solicitor General who appeared on behalf of the Railway Administration undertook to deposit the arrears due from August up to date with the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Madras. We also directed the learned counsel for the employees to file a list of the employees entitled to be paid wages. We directed that the amount should be paid after verification by the Deputy Chief Superintendent, Southern Railway. We were told that there is some dispute about the names of the employees. We now direct that the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Madras will enquire into the question as to who were working as catering cleaners in the Madras Central Station, and also to determine the wages due to them from August, 1986 up to date giving credit to any amount that may have been paid to them. On such determination, the Railway Administration shall deposit the amount with the Deputy Labour Commissioner who shall pay over the same to the employees. The determination by the Deputy Labour Commissioner is directed to be completed before February 28, 1987 and the deposit by the Administration is directed to be made before March 15, 1987. This part of the order covers only the catering cleaners employed in the Central Station, Madras.
(3.) In answer to the writ petition the Railway Administration has adopted a somewhat unhelpful attitude. According to the Administration it has not been found to be possible to abolish the contract labour system because the nature of the cleaning work in the catering units of the Southern Railway was fluctuating and intermittant. The contract labour system is followed not only in the Southern Railway but also in the South Central Railway and the South Eastern Railway. They claim that any. departmental units not working profitably could be handed over to a private licensee and this was the alternative that was adopted by the Southern Railway in the case of catering cleaners. Experience showed that it was difficult to extract work from catering cleaners if they were engaged on a regular basis by the railway and it was not possible to supervise their work effectively. According to them, all pros and cons were examined before entrusting the cleaning work to private contractors. The Southern Railway had a moral responsibility to the public to ensure satisfactory service and that was the reason why the work was entrusted to a private agency which was considered the most suitable method of doing the work.;