MANAGEMENT OF VISVESWABAYA IRON AND STEEL LTD Vs. PRESIDING OFFICER CENTRAL GOVERNMENTINDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL BANGALORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) the petitioner in this writ petition has sought for quashing the award dated 20-7-1987 published in the gazette dated 22-8-1987 produced at annexure a.

(2.) the brief facts of the case are as under:the visl is a company registered under the companies act. It has set up its factory for manufacturing of iron and steel products, at bhadravathi. It has taken some mines on lease from the state government. One such mine is at bilikallabetta and it is known as bilikallabetta quartz mines (hereinafter referred as b.b. mines).

(3.) for mining operations contractors were appointed fromtime to time. The contractors in turn engaged labourers. Sri puttaiah t. And Sri chennakeshava are the contractors extracting the work in the mines, engaged 185 workers and they used to pay Rs. 4/- for male workers and Rs. 3/- for female workers per day from the year 1975 till 31st of march, 1983. The mines employees association raised a dispute for higher wages. It was referred to the industrial tribunal as reference no. 9 of 1974. The general manager, visl and the first party workmen compromised the matter and the wages were increased. Management paid stationary benefits also. Under the mines act registers were maintained in forms a, b, d, g and h and visl also provided creche to children, canteen, rent free quarters, hospital facilities and fair price shops. They have also maintained statutory registers under different acts. In reference no. 6 of 1971 a compromise was filed by the workmen and the second party visl. Prior to the retrenchment or closure of the mines, it is their case that visl did not issue any notice and workmen are victimised for ever. The ii party (b) and (c) issued notice to each workman on 24th february, 1983 stating that their contract period was due to expire on 31st march, 1983 and adviced the workers to seek employment elsewhere, i.e., from 1st april, 1983. The notices issued by the contractors are not valid. The I party issued notices to the ii party (a), (b) and (c). The matter was admitted for conciliation in march, 1983. The assistant labour commissioner, mangalore, sent notices to the ii party and asked to maintain the status quo, but they stopped the work from 1-3-1983. The management stated that they have closed the mines temporarily for 1 or 1 years. It is the case of the workmen that the provisions of sections 25-f and 25-o have been violated. When the conciliation was pending, a sum of Rs. 300/- was paid to each worker as advance. On 3rd november, 1983, the management had issued a notice to terminate the award of reference no. 9 of 1974, retrenchment is illegal and they sought for reinstatement with full backwages.