- (1.) The Petitioner-Cement Corporation of India Ltd. (hereinafter referred as the Management), in this petition under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India makes a prayer for the issuance of a Writ of Certiorari for quashing the order dated February 1, 2000 passed by the Labour Court, Chandigarh hereinafter referred to as "Labour Court") allowing the applications of the workmen, under Section 33-C(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act (hereinafter referred to as "the Act").
(2.) All the workmen were originally employees of the Cement Factory at Charkhi Dadri, Dist. Bhiwani, Haryana which was run and controlled by Dalima Dadri Cement Limited hereinafter referred to as "DDCL"). This factory was closed down by the DDCL on March 18, 1980. Services of all its employees, except 95 employees were terminated. Subsequently, by the enactment of the DDCL (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1981, the undertakings of DDCL vested in the Central Government/ SSI with effect from June 23, 1981. The Management decided to make fresh recruitments from amongst the employees of the DDCL whose services have been terminated. Since all the employees of DDCL would not be re-employed, a Rehabilitation Compensation Scheme was formulated and approved by the Government. Those ex-employees who opted for the Scheme were paid Rs. 10,000.00 as compensation. In all, 526, ex-employees were paid Rehabilitation compensation. The remaining ex-employees were kept on panel for employment against future vacancies. In the meantime, CCI Cement Factory Men's Union (Recognised) (hereinafter called as the Union) made a demand for providing some source of livelihood by giving jobs of casual nature to the ex-employees of DDCL whose names were borne on the panel. A tripartite Standing committee comprising of representatives of employees, the Management and the Government of Haryana was constituted by the Government of India for considering the demand of the Union. The Standing Committee, after deliberations decided that the ex-employees would form a co-operative society of ex- employees which in turn would be given contract/jobs by the Management for execution of contract/jobs. The Society would itself engage the ex-employees. It was decided that the Society would be paid 45 per cent over and above minimum wages fixed by the Haryana Government, in respect of each of its members engaged by the Society for executing the work allotted to the Society. The Management would further pay 5 per cent to the Society as administrative charges. The workmen who filed application under Section 33-C(2) were members of the Co-operative Society which was known as DDCL Factory Ex-employees Co-operative Labour and Construction Society Limited, Charkhi Dadri (hereinafter called as the Society). The Society functioned under the supervision and control of the Union. Some of the workmen were engaged for work by the Society and were paid wages by the Society. After some time, when the workmen were rendered jobless, they filed applications under Section 33-C(2) of the Act for computation of their wages. The Management contested the claim on the ground that it was totally baseless, misconceived and non-existent.
(3.) The workmen had claimed that they have been working as unskilled/semi-skilled labourers with the Management since 1982-83. They have been continuously and regularly working on the jobs and posts which are of permanent nature in connection with the manufacturing process. Each of the applicants claim to be legally entitled to get the lawful benefits and facilities as per the term of Cement Arbitration award dated July 10, 1984, settlements dated May 10, 1989, July 31, 1992. The claim put forward by the applicants was as follows: JUDGEMENT_405_LLJ2_2002Html1.htm 2. The claim of workmen named Pyare Lai and Banwari each is as follows: JUDGEMENT_405_LLJ2_2002Html2.htm;