RADHAKRISHNAN NAIR Vs. K S R T C

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The controversy in this writ petition centres round the formula to be applied for the calculation of overtime wages of the ministerial staff of the 1st respondent, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (for short 'the Corporation'). The question is of general importance and of far-reaching financial implications, and affects a large section of the employees of the Corporation, though the order impugned in the writ petition concerns only an individual and involves only a meagre sum.

(2.) As is well known, the Corporation employs a large number of workmen, belonging to various categories. The ministerial section of its workers, probably meaning white-collared among them, forms a distinct category. The proliferation of trade unions is reflected in this category and in this Corporation too. The unions espoused the demands of the ministerial staff. A charter of demands was presented. Conciliation talks ensued. And ultimately the disputes were happily settled. The memorandum of settlement, Ext. R1, took in various matters. One such matter related to working hours. The working hours had been reduced and fixed as from "10 A. M. to 5 P. M. with existing lunch interval". Apparently, the lunch interval is one hour. The resultant position, therefore, is that the working time of the ministerial staff is fixed as seven hours.

(3.) The statutes which govern the hours of work of similar workers, namely, the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act and the Motor Transport Workers Act, inter alia, provide for the working hours of employees. There, working hours are fixed as eight. Thus what had been gained as a result of the settlement of dispute under Ext. R1 is a distinct advantage in the reduction of the working hours. This is an advantage or benefit which the workmen are entitled to enjoy and retain the statutes permitting such preservation of more advantageous terms obtained out of collective bargain. It is not in dispute that this section of the workmen are paid overtime wages, whenever they are obliged to work for a longer period than seven hours a day. It is rightly so. Though a statutory right under the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act and the Motor Transport Workers Act to claim overtime wages can ordinarily arise only if they work beyond eight hours a day, or forty-eight hours a week, the ministerial staff of the Corporation are entitled to overtime wages, even when the hours of work do not exceed the daily or weekly hours of work stipulated under the statute, in view of the reduction in the working hours as a result of the settlement Ext. R1. This position is indicated in Para.3 of the counter affidavit dated 17-7-1978 of the respondent Corporation: