WORKMEN OF HINDUSTHAN MOTORS Vs. HINDUSTHAN MOTORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Six matter in dispute between the respondent, Hindusthan Motors, Ltd. , and their workmen were referred to the second Industrial tribunal, West Bengal. The first five were:

(2.) The arguments before us regarding the grades and scales of pay have centred round the question whether the tribunal was justified in not applying to the time-rated workers the grades and scales of pay awarded by the Third Major Engineering tribunal. It has to be noticed that the respondent company was originally made a party to the order of reference to the Third Major Engineering tribunal; but it got its name deleted from that reference by moving High court on the ground that the provisions made by another Industrial tribunal (ale) and its workers were at that time subsisting. At the hearing of the present reference the workmen appear to have contended that even though the respondent is also an engineering concern it should; In view of Its exceptional prosperity, pay wages at a higher rate than was fixed by the Third Major Engineering tribunal for workmen in other engineering concerns. The present tribunal agreed that the respondent is an engineering concern and addressed itself to the question whether the grades and scales Introduced by the Third Major Engineering tribunal could reasonably be applied to this concern. 16 accepted however the respondent's plea that in view of the numerous categories of the workmen of that concern no division in groups according to the skill was possible and so grades and scales of pay provided in the award of the Third Major Engineering tribunal had to be modified. In making the modification it fixed the slab and rates thus:

(3.) The appellants' contention before us is that the grades and scales of pay provided in the award of the Third Major Engineering tribunal can and should be applied to this concern also. On turning to that award we find that there also an argument was advanced on behalf of the engineering concerns that classification of workmen with reference to skill could not be conveniently made without the aid of technical expert bodies and that the tribunal should not embark upon the task of dividing the workmen in different groups. The Third Engineering tribunal appreciated the force of the contention made on behalf of the companies about the difficulty of scientific classification of workmen but decided. In our opinion, rightly that that would be no reason to avoid the task altogether and adopted a classification of the workmen Into four groups. A, B, C and D, and fixed the pay scales and grades of these groups thus: