COMMONWEALTH TRUST LTD Vs. LABOUR COURT HUBLI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner before us is the management of a tile factory known as the Commonwealth Tile Factory in Mangalore owned by a company called the Commonwealth Trust, Ltd. In one of the departments of that factory called the kiln department there was a team of workers consisting of 34 operatives. On 30 April 1959, 26 operatives in that gang, according to the management, stopped work at 1-30 p.m. and left the factory premises at 3 p.m. The work which was to be done by one set of these operatives was to load green tile into the chambers where the tiles had to be baked and the work to be done by another set of these operatives was to unload the burnt tiles at the other end of the chambers. On the day on which, according to the management, the workers left the premises at 3 p.m., they had loaded only six chambers and although green tiles were still available which could be loaded into the remaining three chambers, they struck work and left the factory at 3 p.m. There was an enquiry into this act of misconduct on the part of those 26 operatives by the management, and, the punishment imposed on them was that they should not be paid their wages for one day. This gave rise to an industrial dispute which was referred to the labour court by the Government, under S. 10(4) of the Industrial Disputes Act.

(2.) On behalf of the operatives, what was contended before the labour court was that according to the terms of their employment, the operatives in the kiln department were fee to leave the factory the moment they finished the baking of the tiles in at least six chambers, and that having been completed on 30 April, 1959 at about 1-30 p.m., they were at liberty to go away from the factory without being obliged to feed the remaining three chambers with green tiles. Another part of their case was that according to the practice or custom obtaining in the entire tile industry as a whole, it was permissible for the operatives in the kiln department to leave their post of duty and go home after they finished the baking of the tiles in six chambers. The other complaint made against the management was that the enquiry which culminated in the punishment against the 26 operatives was an unfair enquiry motivated by mala fides.

(3.) On each one of these submissions made on behalf of the operatives, the finding of the labour court was in their favour. The labour court recorded a finding that the operatives did not strike work on 30 April, 1959 and that they were at liberty to go home after they had completed the baking of the tiles in six chambers, which they had done. Although the case on behalf of the operatives was that according to a practice which was obtaining in the tile industry as a whole, it was permissible for the workers to leave the factory at 2 or 3 p.m. after completing their work, the finding of the labour court was, as we under stand it, that although no such custom in the tile industry as a whole was established, it could still be concluded that that custom was one which was prevalent in the tile factory of the petitioner. The labour court was also of the view that, according to the terms of employment between the petitioner and the operatives, the minimum quantity of work which had to be turned out by the operatives consisted of the baking of i green tiles in six chambers a day.