MUKUND LIMITED Vs. MUKUND KAMGAR UNION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition is directed against the Award dated 19th December, 2000, passed by the Industrial Tribunal in Reference (IT) No. 6 of 1998. By the impugned Award, the Tribunal has partly allowed the reference holding that the respondent Union was justified in demanding grant of bonus/ex gratia to the extent of Rs. 6000/- only as against the demand of bonus at the rate of 20% in accordance with the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 plus Rs. 10,000/- each for the year 1995-96 in accordance with the attendance.

(2.) THE petitioner is a public limited company, registered under the Companies Act, 1956 having its registered office and a factory at L. B. S. Marg, Kurla, Mumbai and another factory at Kalwa, District Thane. The petitioner employed about 530 workmen at its Kurla factory and 1300 workmen at its Kalwa factory. The workmen at both the places consist of monthly rated and daily rated workmen. In the present writ petition we are concerned with daily rated workmen working at Kurla factory. The petitioner is engaged in the manufacturing of steel bogies, couplers etc. The petitioners factory is one of the biggest private sector in India. The respondent-union is a trade union registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

(3.) IT is the case of the petitioner that the payment of annual bonus over the years has been governed by the provisions of comprehensive settlements concluded between the petitioner and the respondent-union covering in single packages, wages and other emoluments as well as annual bonus. In other words, the payment of bonus effected by the petitioner in past was covered by the specific settlements between the petitioner and the respondent. The annual bonus was paid to the workmen working at Kurla and Kalwa factories for the years 1990-91 to 1994-95 on the basis of the memorandum of settlement dated 8th July, 1991. In 1995-96, the daily rated workmen at Kurla factory were not paid annual bonus since, according to the petitioner, they refused to accept the conditions. In view thereof, the respondent Union raised a dispute for payment of bonus and ex gratia payment before the Deputy Commissioner of Labour by their letter dated 13th December, 1996. The letter was sent along with the notice of demand and statement of justification to the Deputy Commissioner of Labour (Admn.) The petitioner filed its reply before the Deputy Commissioner of Labour vide its letters dated 28th April, 1997 and 4th August, 1997. Since the matter could not be settled by the Assistant Commissioner of Labour (Conciliation), a failure report was sent to the Government of Maharashtra and in turn the Government of Maharashtra referred the dispute for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal, Mumbai, vide Reference (IT) No. 6 of 1998 stating that all the workers should be paid amount at the rate of 20% in accordance with the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 plus Rs. 10,000/- each for the year 1995-96 in accordance with the attendance. The respondent union filed its statement of claim on 15th September, 1998. The petitioner filed its written statement on 12th January, 1999.