ELECTRO MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES LTD Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL NO 2 FOR ENGINEERING FIRMS AND TYPE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application arises out of a reference dated 27-6-1949 made by the Workers of the Electro Mechanical Industries Ltd. in respect of certain disputes between themselves represented by the Workers' Union and management. There were sixteen items of dispute and the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, after due inquiry made an award on 5-11-1949. The management seeks from this Court a writ of certiorari to quash the award in respect of two of the items of dispute.

(2.) The first item relates to the deduction of eight days wages from the employees as per the notice of the management dated 19-4-1949. The workers claim a return of the wages deducted. The deduction was made by the management because of a strike by the workmen on 18-4-1949. The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the strike wag not legal and therefore the management was not wrong in punishing the men who went on strike. The provision which enables the management to make a deduction of wages in a case of this kind is contained in Section 9, Payment of Wages Act. Sub-section (2) of that section contains the following proviso which is material:

(3.) Mr. T. L. Venkatarama Aiyar, learned counsel for the management, contended that the Tribunal, having held that the strike was not justified, had no jurisdiction to direct a refund of the pay for seven days. As the workers claimed the refund on the ground that the strike was justified, the only question which the Tribunal was called upon to decide was whether the strike was justified. If it was, there could be no deduction of wages. If it was not, then the-deduction made by the management was justified. So his argument ran. He conceded that it was open to the Tribunal to decide the question as to the legality of the strike. In our opinion, the Tribunal was competent to direct a refund of the wages for seven days. It is true that the workers demanded the return of the wages for the entire period of eight days. The management, on the other hand, claimed that the workers were not entitled to any refund at all. In these circumstances, as the dispute regarding the deduction was referred to the Tribunal for decision, it was open to it to hold that the wages for a lese number of days than claimed by the workers should be returned.