PHILIPS WORKERS UNION Vs. PHILIPS INDIA LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE, returnable forthwith. The respondents waive service.

(2.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner which is a registered Trade Union claiming to represent the workers employed by the 1st respondent at its unit situated at Thane, seeks to challenge an order dated 13-10-1999 passed by the Deputy Commissioner of Labour. By the said order, the Deputy Commissioner of Labour has declined to admit a demand raised by the union in conciliation under section 12 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

(3.) ON 21-11-1997, the union raised a demand contending that machineries, equipment, activities and production units which had been moved out of the establishment by the company, be brought back forthwith and be installed at the Thane Plant. A settlement had been arrived at on 21-2-1998 between the 1st respondent company, the petitioner union and another union under section 18 (1) read with section 2 (p) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. After the aforesaid settlement came to be arrived at, the union, on 9-4-1998, complained that the second unit for the production of tube lights was removed from the factory "behind the back of the workers" on the night of 28th and 29th March, 1998. In the said letter, the union alleged that the machines which had been removed from the plant, were installed at other locations and that the workers were being unilaterally redeployed by the company. A further letter dated 31-8-1998 was written by the union to the company in which a grievance was made that the management was not complying with the obligations imposed upon it by the industrial settlement. Thereafter, a further demand came to be raised by the union on 15-10-1998 in which, apart from the demand raised in the earlier letter dated 21-11-1997, the union contended that the company should revert back to a working week consisting of 44 hours.