ORDNANCE FACTORY,REP. BY ITS GENERAL MANAGER Vs. DEFENCE CONTRACT LABOUR UNION REP. BY ITS GENERAL SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these writ petitions are arising out of the dispute between the Trade Union and the Management of the Ordnance Factory, Tiruchirappalli and therefore, they are taken up together and disposed by way of this common order.

(2.) The Ordnance Factory, Tiruchirappalli, a Government of India undertaking, is engaged in the manufacturing of arms and ammunition for the Indian Army (hereinafter referred to as the "Management"). The Trade Union is representing the contract labourers engaged by the Management (hereinafter referred to as "trade union").

(3.) The Management has engaged the workers of the trade union through service contracts for carrying out sweeping, removal of garbage, cleaning and other related supervisory works. These contracts are governed under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. These workers have been engaged through different contractors periodically and they were paid with minimum wages as per Notification No.190(E) dtd. 19/1/2017, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. These works were previously carried out by engaging Group-D employees. However, pursuant to a policy decision of the Central Government, the Management has engaged contract labourers for the above works from the year 2014 onwards. The trade union has approached the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), Chennai, contending that the nature of work is perennial and that they are doing the same nature of work carried out by the Group-D employees previously and therefore, they must be paid equal wages for equal work, as contemplated under Rule 25 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Rules 1971.