COOPER ENGINEERING LTD Vs. D M ANEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution the petitioner company, employers (hereinafter referred to as "the Company") has challenged the legality of the order or reference dated January 25, 1969, made by the State Government under S. 10(1)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, in respect of the disputes Nos. 1 and 2 mentioned in the order.

(2.) The facts leading to the institution of the petition may be shortly stated as follows :- The company has business of a factory at Chinchwad near Poona where it is engaged in production and manufacture of machine tools of different types and classes. About 800 workmen are working in the factory. Prior to July 6, 1963, the 3rd respondent trade union represented the majority of the workman at the factory and made an agreement dated July 6, 1963, in connection with dearness allowance payable to the workmen. In the agreement the payment of dearness allowance was linked with the cost of living index prevalent at Sholapur, as at that date the Poona cost of living index was not fixed by any authority. On ar about December 12, 1964, the Government of India constituted a Wage Board for the engineering industries consisting of a Chairman and two independent members and with equal representatives on behalf of the employers and employees. The terms of reference, inter alia related to the determination of categories of employees to be brought within the scope of the proposed wage fixation and to work out a wage structure based on the principles of fair wage in connection with workmen in engineering industrial. Having regard to an expectation that the question of interim relief and/or payment (pending the report to be made by the Wage Board) was likely to be decided first by the Wage Board and thereupon by the Central Government, certain meetings whereat the Hon'ble Minister for Labour, the officials of the Indian Engineering Association, Western Region and the Engineering Association of India, Western Region, and the Union representing the engineering workmen were present took place. At the meeting held sometime in September, 1965, the Hon'ble Minister appears to have stated that the Government would not refer disputes about wages and allowances to adjudication in case of engineering establishments covered by the Wage Board if the employers agreed to implement the recommendations, interim or final, of the Wage Board as accepted by the Government of India.

(3.) On July 23, 1966, the Central Government by its resolution of that date referred to the fact that the Wage Board had not been able to arrive at an agreed solution as regards the interim relief to be given and that the Wage Board had no February 12, 1966, by majority vote, decided to recommend to the Government a scheme for interim relief. The Government recorded the difference of opinion between the representatives of the employers and the labour in connection with the question of interim relief. The Government declared that it had decided to accept the majority recommendations and mentioned them in the scheme of relief appearing in Appendix 1 which was annexed to the Government resolution. By the resolution the Government requested the employers in engineering industries to implement the recommendations as contained in the scheme of interim relief mentioned in the Appendix 1. It appears that the membership of the 3rd respondent Union decreased and the membership of the 2nd respondent Trade Union of workman of the company increased and about January, 1965 the majority of the workmen of the company belonged to the 2nd respondent Union and that Union was recognised by the company. The 2nd respondent Union had prior to the date of the above Government resolution submitted its charter of demands dated August 3, 1965, demanding fixation of wage scale and that the dearness allowance should be linked with the Poona cost of living index which had been for the first time fixed in June, 1965. The 2nd respondent Union had also made certain small demands by submitting two further charters of demands dated January 22, 1966 and February 26, 1966.