SHANKAR NARAYAN K Vs. THAKUR S S

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition for an appropriate writ or direction under Art. 227 of the Constitution, filed by the petitioner challenging the judgment and order, dated 18 February 1961, dismissing the petitioner's application passed by respondent 1 who is the appropriate authority under the Payment of Wages Act. The petitioner is a workman and employee of respondents 2 who are an engineering company. The petitioner is employed in the factory of respondents 2, respondents 2 being a public limited company. The working hours of the petitioner as also of the other employees of respondents 2 working in the factory of respondents 2 are governed by the Factories Act, 1948. Under the Factories Act, the ordinary working hours at all relevant times were nine hours per day and forty-eight hours per week. The petitioner and the other employees of respondents 2 being dissatisfied with the rates of wages and dearness allowance and certain other conditions of employment made certain demands upon respondents 2 on 21 April 1957. The said demands being collective demands were treated as an industrial dispute and were referred by the then Government of Bombay to an industrial tribunal for adjudication under S. 10(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The industrial tribunal made its award on or about 5 February 1959, and the said award was published in the Bombay Government Gazette on 19 March 1959.

(2.) Only two of the demands which were the subject-matter of the said adjudication are relevant in this case. The first demand was for fixing certain grades for the monthly paid staff of certain categories of respondents 2. That demand really was for an increase in the rates of basic wages of the members of the staff falling in those categories. It was demanded that the said increased rates should be effective from 1 January 1957. The second of the said demands was for an increased rate of dearness allowance payable to the workmen of respondents 2. By the said award, certain increased rates of payment of basic wages in respect of some of the workmen of the said categories of staff mentioned in the first demand were granted. The award also granted certain higher rates of dearness allowance. By Para. 38 of the award, it was further directed that arrears of pay and dearness allowance shall be paid with retrospective effect from 1 April 1958, within the period mentioned in that paragraph. It is therefore, clear that the award which is dated 5 February 1959, and which became effective from the expiry of a month thereafter was given retrospective effect as from 1 April 1958.

(3.) Respondents 2 have implemented the said award. There is no dispute that respondents 2 are paying basic wages and dearness allowance as directed by the said award since the date of the said award. Even as regards the retrospective payment ordered by the said award, the petitioner as also the other workmen, have been paid basic wages and dearness allowance as directed by the said award. There is, however, only one dispute between respondents 2 and the petitioner as also some other workmen, with whom we are not concerned directly in this petition, and that is that according to the petitioner, he is entitled to receive payment of wages for overtime, i.e., for the work done by the petitioner in excess of the ordinary working hours, at rates computed on the basis of the said higher rates of basic wages fixed by the award as from 1 April 1958. It is common ground that after the date of the award, respondents 2 are paying even for overtime on the basis of the said higher rates of basic wages. Respondents 2, however, deny that they are liable to pay for overtime for the period prior to the said award at the increased rates of basic wages.