MEENAKSHI MILLS LIMITED Vs. LABOUR COURT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is filed by the management of Sri Meenakshi Mills Ltd., Madurai, for the issue of a writ of certiorari to call for the records of the Labour Court, Madurai, in C.P. No. 362 of 1965 and to quash 'its order dated 26th March, 1966, holding that the badli workers who had been in continuous employment for more than one year are entitled to lay-off compensation on the dates when they were not provided work, as there was no absence of permanent workers.

(2.) In the mills, during the five months from December, 1964 to April, 1965, the second respondent, Maruthu Servai, was not given work for 39 days by the management. The second respondent was admittedly a badli workman in the mills. He filed a petition under Section 33-C(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act claiming that he would be entitled to lay-off compensation for 39 days under Section 25-C of the Industrial Disputes Act. The plea on behalf of the petitioner-mills is that as all the permanent workmen had turned up on all the 39 days, work could not be provided for badli workers and the denial of the work to the second respondent was not due to lay-off and as such the claim for lay-off compensation is unsustainable in law.

(3.) The question that falls to be determined in the writ petition is whether a badli worker who had completed one year of continuous service in the establishment is entitled to lay-off compensation when he is refused work due to the permanent workers turning up in full strength and there being no scope for employment of badlis.