JAY KRISHNA PANDEY Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By virtue of filing Writ Petition No. 5849 (S/S) of 1999, the petitioners have prayed for a writ of certiorari quashing the order dated September 16, 1999 passed by the Secretary of the Labour Department, U.P., Civil Secretariat, Lucknow, whereby decision to carry on with the contract labour system was taken. Further a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to regularise the services of the petitioners and pay their regular salary was also sought for. Yet one more relief for a writ in the nature of mandamus was also prayed for commanding the respondents to discontinue unfair labour practice and execute the order dated May 5, 1999 passed by the Secretary, Dugdh Vikas and order dated October 23, 1999 passed by the General Manager of the Milk Union. The petitioners have also requested for continuance of their service by means of a mandate to the respondents.

(2.) The matrix of the petitioners' case is that they have been working with the Milk Union for a long period ranging from three to eight years as contract labourers having put in more than 240 days in each year. The nature of the work which is being executed by them is perennial and not seasonal. The Co-operative Milk Union with whom the petitioners are working, is a registered society under the U.P. Co-operative Societies Act and the said Union has a milk handling capacity of atleast three lac litres per day. The Union operates in three shifts everyday and thus minimum of two sets of employees or other staff are needed to operate the milk dairy business. However, the Milk Union instead of hiring the services of two sets of workers, employed on permanent basis only one set of employees and the other set of employees is on contract basis. Thus by amalgamating the services of two kinds of labourers, the Milk Union is running its dairy business round the clock in three shifts. The purpose behind engagement of contract labourers is to reduce the cost of operation but it is to the disadvantage of the labourers who would otherwise be entitled to draw their remuneration in regular pay scale. In this way, the contract labour system adopted by the Milk Union was camouflage to deprive the labourers of their legitimate right on regular basis and obviously it is unjust; unfair and unreasonable.

(3.) The petitioners pleaded further that the Milk Union has engaged the services of three kinds of labourers, namely, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. Labourers of each category are required to discharge their duty for eight hours at the rate of minimum wages fixed by the Labour Commissioner under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act. As a matter of fact, all the petitioners' job comes within the ambit of Class III employees of Government service and as such they are entitled to the regular pay scale as admissible to the Government servants. They are experienced persons but the Milk Union engaged them as contract labourers and exploited their services. The petitioners raised their voice against the malpractice being adopted by the Union and submitted a representation to the State Government as well as to the Deputy Labour Commissioner requesting them to abolish the contract labour system on the ground that the Milk Union was compelling the labourers to perform the work of permanent and perennial nature without giving them regular pay scale. Similar reliefs have been sought for by the petitioners of Writ Petitions Nos. 6109 (S/S) of 1999 and 6030 (S/S)of 1999.