V.A.HENRY Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL, ALAPPUZHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Exhibit P5 award in an industrial dispute, ordering compensation to the workmen finding them to have been denied employment is challenged by the management. In the claim filed pursuant to the reference, the workmen alleged that they were denied employment without any justification by the management; the petitioner herein, who is a construction contractor.

(2.) The petitioner however claimed that he was not a contractor and was only a supervisor, in the construction site of Vidyanikethan Institutions, and that he had never employed the workmen in any work site. The petitioner having never employed the workmen, there arise no question of any denial of employment was the defense raised.

(3.) The workmen examined three witnesses and so did the management. The General Secretary of the Union who deposed as WW 1, produced five documents of which four were respectively the letter of the union, a list of machineries, a statement of the constructions carried out by the petitioner which were all admitted to be statements made by the witness itself. W5 was however a book in which the various buildings in which the petitioner was engaged as a contractor was detailed. WW 2, was a carpenter who had earlier worked with the petitioner, who deposed as to the employment of the workmen who were involved in the dispute.