MAFAAGEINENT OT PRAGA INDUSTRIES LIMITED COIMBATORE Vs. WORKERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave arises out of an industrial dispute between the Management of Praga Industries (P) Ltd., (hereafter called the appellant) and its workmen (hereafter called the respondents). The dispute which was referred by the Government of Madras for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal at Coimbatore covered four items. Two of them were settled by compromise between the parties and the remaining two were the subject-matter of adjudication. They are the question about the quantum of bonus payable to the respondents for the year 1954 and the question of fixing scales of wages with graded annual increments for different categories of respondents. The tribunal has ordered the appellant to pay to the respondents by way of bonus three months' wages. The appellant had already paid one month's bonus and so it had been directed to pay bonus for two months more. In regard to the fixation of the wage structure the tribunal has refrained from fixing any wage structure at present and as an interim measure it has ordered the appellant to grant all its workmen an increment at the rate of 4 per cent. and to continue to grant such an increment every year until they are classified and their pay scale is introduced to reach a particular maximum. It is these two directions in the award which are challenged by the appellant in the present appeal.

(2.) The appellant is a private limited company carrying on the business of manufacturing nut an plastic buttons in Coimbatore as a lessee under Praga Industries, Coimbatore, which is a partnership firm. The appellant took on lease from the said firm land, buildings and machinery belonging to it under an indenture of lease executed on 15-1-1954. Under this deed a monthly rental of Rs. 5,000 has to be paid by the appellant for five years; the lease includes a clause by which a right of renewal is given to the appellant for a period of three years.

(3.) The appellant's case was that its financial position was not satisfactory; that it had to borrow an over-draft from the Indian Bank Limited, Coimbatore, under an overdraft account which left the appellant a debtor to the said Bank to the extent of Rs. 48,414 in 1954. The appellant had also not paid the rent due to the lessor for the said year and had in fact ploughed back the said amount of rent of Rs. 60,000 into the business of the appellant as working capital. According to the appellant, under the Full Bench formula the respondents' claim for additional bonus was not justified.