WORKMEN Vs. REPTAKOSBRETT AND COMPANY LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Special leave granted.

(2.) The Reptakos Brett and Co. Ltd. (hereinafter called the Company) is engaged in the manufacture of pharmaceutical and dietetic speciality products and is having three units, two at Bombay and one at Madras. The Madras factory, with which we are concerned, was set up in the year 1959. The Company on its own provided slab system of Dearences Allowance (DA) which means the DA paid to the workmen was linked to cost of living index as well as the basic wage. The said double-linked DA Scheme was included in Various settlements between the Company and the workmen and remained operative for about thirty years. The question for our consideration is whether the Company is entitled to restructure the DA Scheme by abolishing the slab system and substituting the same by the Scheme - prejudicial to the workmen - on the ground that the is lab system has resulted in over-neutralisation thereby landing the workmen in the highwage island.

(3.) The first settlement between the Company and the workmen was entered into on August 11, 1964. While accepting the doublelinked DA it further provided variable DA limited to the cost of living index up to 5.415.50. Further relief was given to the workmen in the settlement dated July 18, 1969 when the limit on the variable DA was removed. The Company revised the rates of DA on August 7, 1971. Thereafter, two more settlements were entered into on July 4, 1974, and January 4, 1979, respectively. Slao system with variable DA continued to be the basic constituent of the wage-structure in the Company from its inception.