- (1.) Most intriguing questions arise in these two writ applications which were heard together. They concern the employees or workmen of Kesoram Industries Limited, at the relevant point of time.
(2.) By his letter dated 5th September, 1995 the Deputy Regional Director Employees' State Insurance Corporation told the writ petitioner that the milk allowance of Rs. 2.25 per day that they were paying to each of their workmen was not to be counted as part of their wage. He also said that the wages that were being paid for work done by the workmen on holidays were to be treated as overtime and not included as a component of wage paid to them. Now, before proceeding further with the matter, I would like to say that the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 is a piece of beneficent legislation aimed that protecting the interest of certain categories of employees. At the relevant point of time, for being under the protection of this beneficent legislation, the aggregate wage of a workman should not have been over Rs. 3000/- per month, under Rule 50 of the Employees' State Insurance (Central) Rules, 1950
(3.) The draftsman of the Act was extremely careful in declaring the types of payment made to workmen by the employer that would constitute wage. Take for example section 2 (9) of this Act. It defines an employee. While defining various categories of employees who would fall in this class, the legislature in section 2(9) (b) made it clear that the wages, excluding remuneration for "overtime work" should not exceed the above limit. Again consider the definition of wages in section 2(22) of this Act. Wage would not include any special expenses incurred in respect of an employee considering the nature of his employment. For example, if a workman, working around the furnace of a factory is to be paid an allowance to consume glucose and salt, that would not be part of his wage as it is a special and necessary expense incurred by the employer on his employee to get a particular type of work done.;