SHAHUL HAMEED Vs. SHAJI JOSEPH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The grievance of the petitioner is that notwithstanding the order dated 07.04.2017 in W.P.(C) No. 7994 of 2017 as against the trade unions as well as the civil administration (police) not to unreasonably interfere with the affairs of the petitioner, the interference continues and no protection is afforded by the police.

(2.) The petitioner is conducting a small timber depot at Kanjirappally. Periodically, he purchases timber from various agriculturists. The trees are cut and the timber is felled to the ground. The petitioner takes his lorry and crane to load timber. It appears that the petitioner and their like had entered into Annexure R3(b) agreement with various Unions in connection with wages to be paid to the workers, which provides for payment of charges for loading timber at a fixed rate per cubic feet, but have no co-relation to the number of workers involved or the complete nature of work. Clause 4 of Annexure R3(b) provides that in case cranes are used to load timber, there would be a nominal reduction in the amount to be paid to the Unions. Loading or unloading timber from lorries is a major part of the work, but still only a nominal reduction is agreed to. We are not called upon to go into the legality of such an agreement, which is forced upon the petitioner by the trade unions.

(3.) The grievance of the petitioner is that notwithstanding the intention of the petitioner to use crane to load timber and use his permanent employees to facilitate the loading and unloading of the timber, the Unions threaten him and dissuade him from using cranes. They insist that only workers registered with them would do the work. They threaten to destroy and damage the crane as well. Complaints to the police have yielded no result in as much as the police is inactive when matters involve the Unions. The result is that the petitioner has to pay the Unions through his nose for absolutely nothing. It is specifically contended that he transports an average of 500 cubic metres of timber everyday and he is being forced to pay a sum of Rs.25,000/- to the Union as "nokku kooli".