(1.) This is a writ petition by the Municipal Corporation of the City of Nagpur, challenging the order of the Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Nagpur passed in favour of the respondents Nos. 2 to 5 under Section 33-C (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 .
(2.) The undisputed facts are that the respondents Nos. 2 to 5 are the employees of the Corporation in its Fire Brigade Department. A certain award called the Muzumdar award, the then name of the Presiding Officer, settled the hours of duty of the Municipal employees including those of the Fire Brigade Department. A normal working day for the Fire Brigade Department consisted of 5 hours, but the members of that Department were supposed to be on duty for all the 24 hours of the day. The respondents 2 to 5 based their claim upon these observation of that award and said that any work taken from, them, periodically or regularly in excess of 5 hours working day was in excess of the number of working hours fixed by the award and must be paid for by way of extra remuneration, at certain rates or by way of special allowances etc. Prior to the filing of this petition, they also filed an application under Section 41 of the C. P. and Berar Industrial Disputes Settlement Act, 1947 and obtained a declaration that making the employees work in excess of 5 hours was an illegal change. Under these circumstances, they applied for claiming the dues by calculating them under sub-section (2) of S. 33-C of the Industrial Disputes Act.
(3.) The claim was resisted on various grounds. Several defences were raised, but it is not necessary to enumerate them as we are inclined to dispose of the petition on a fresh ground which is being argued for the first time in this litigation. In relation to the contentions then raised the first respondent passed a certain order and calculated the arrears due in favour of the respondents 2 to 5. Being aggrieved this writ petition has been filed by the Corporation.