BEML LIMITED Vs. BEML CANTEEN KARMIKARA SANGHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner-company which is Central Government Public Sector Undertaking is before this Court calling in question the order dated 20.07.2018, which is passed by the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, Bengaluru and subsequent Corrigendums dated 10.08.2018 and 14.08.2018.

(2.) A brief background is required to understand the question raised in this writ petition and the facts required for decision making. The petitioner-company which is an establishment situated at Mysuru had contracted out the canteen for running the same from time to time. However, different contractors have been running the canteen for several years. It is contention of the petitioner that it has no control or supervision over the labourer engaged by the contractors in the canteen. During the year 1996, one Mysore Division General Labour Association, claiming to be a registered trade Union and espousing the cause of the contract labours working in the canteen, raised an Industrial Dispute and the same was referred to Labour Court at Mysuru in I.D.No.107/2001. The Industrial Tribunal, Mysuru vide its order dated 22.04.2003, passed an award holding that the workmen of the canteen are permanent workmen of the company and they are entitled for wage benefits and other allowances including leave, overtime and welfare benefits on par with the permanent employees doing unskilled work from the date of order of reference. It was further held that the workmen in the canteen are entitled for 50% of arrears of difference in the salaries etc., from the date of order of reference till the date of award.

(3.) The petitioner herein challenged the award in W.P.No.35453/2003 (L-RES), before this Court. This Court, by order dated 16.04.2010, partly allowed the petition, setting aside the declaration of the Tribunal that the workmen engaged in the canteen are permanent workmen of the petitioner establishment. Insofar as the other aspect of the award, this Court upheld the award of the Tribunal while modifying the entitlement of arrears from 50% to 40%. When the petitioner-company took up the matter before the Division Bench in W.A.No.1980/2010, the respondent-Union also preferred an appeal before the Division Bench in W.A.No.2179/2010. The Division Bench, by a common judgment dated 12.03.2015, held that "the workmen of BEML Canteen at Mysuru are entitled for equal wages on par with the permanent unskilled workers of BEML, considering the hardship that would be caused to BEML, we reduce the arrears of difference in salaries and emoluments to the workmen to 35%." The SLP preferred by the petitionercompany herein was dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 10.08.2015.