THALLA VENKATI Vs. SINGARENI COLLIERIES LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in these three writ petitions have been working as casual labourers for the last 9 to 12 years in Singareni Collieries, the respondent in these writ petitions. As the questions of fact and law in these writ petitions are common, they are being disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) For purposes of appreciating the questions involved the facts in W.P. No. 2170 of 1987 are referred to hereunder. The petitioners are working as casual labourers from 1978 and have put in more than nine years of service. The work attended to by the petitioners is that of general mazdoor, Category-I in open cast project No. 1. They attended to the following duties, viz.,, (1) Belt spillage coal cleaning ; (2) Dumping Bunker cleaning ; (3) Helping the fitters ; (4) Gantry cleaning ; (5) Crack line cleaning ; (6) Level belt cleaning ; (7) Loading and unloading of explosives used for the blasting of the mines ; (8) Cable pulling ; (9) Shifting of machinery (10) Coal sampling ; (11) Plant machinery Cleaning, etc., which are the works attended to by General Mazdoor Category-I. The grievance of the petitioners is that though they have been working for over nine years without any interruption, their services have not been regularised and they are not getting medical facilities, bonus and other incentives and allowances which are being drawn by the workers of General Mazdoor Category-I in addition to their regular salaries at the rate of Rs. 21-16 ps. per day while the petitioners are being paid Rs. 10-10 ps. towards basic salary and that this is violative of principles of equal pay for equal work. It is further stated that from 1978 thousands of persons have been recruited in the category of General Mazdoor Category-I, but the petitioners have not been regularised. It is further stated that in Open Cast Section (C.S.P.) more than 40 workers have been working and their services have been regularised. The petitioners made several representations but the respondent has not considered the same. In these circumstances, the petitioners seek a writ of Mandamus to declare the action of the respondent in not regularising the services of the petitioners find not treating them on par with General Mazdoor Category-I as arbitrary and illegal'and for a further direction to the respondent to regularise their services from the date of their initial appointment and to treat them on par with General Mazdoor Category No. 1 and to pay all benefits accrued to them from the date of their appointment.

(3.) The respondent filed a counter affidavit stating that the petitioners are casual workmen in the respondent-Company which is a public sector undertaking carrying on mining of coal which is declared as public utility service. More than one lakh workers in various categories are engaged by the company in mining operations. The workmen are covered under National Coal Wage Agreements and they are governed by the Mines Act and the Industrial Disputes Act. It is stated that there is heavy absenteeism in the mines at Ramagundam and Godavarikhani divisions upto 40%. Therefore to keep up the production the management has been constrained to engage casual labour according to the exigencies of the work. The company is maintaining "casual labour pool". The casual labour will be engaged by the mines manager and engineer, in charge of the mine, from the pool ensuring that each one of the casual labourers gets equal work. They are not posted continuously in the same post. They are not engaged in permanent vacancy without recruiting permanent workers. The cadre strength has been fixed and permanent employees are working in the permanent posts. For this reason, it is stated, the petitioners cannot claim for a permanent post as General Mazdoor Category-I for which special recruitment procedure is prescribed. It is admitted that no minimum educational qualification is prescribed for General Mazdoor. But it is stated that only those candidates who are sponsored by the employment exchange and who pass physical fitness test, are recruited to the post of General Mazdoor Category-I. It is stated that the description of the work given by the petitioner is misleading. Respondent gave job description relating to the casual workers in detail but it may not be necessary to extract the same. It is added that Open Cast Mine-I is opened in 1979 and the casual labour started working from November, 1985. Prior to that they were not engaged by the respondent-company. It is stated that all the workmen at the coal handling plant in the open cast mine were executing the work in temporary way. The respondent company erected permanent coal handling plant by adopting new technology called Sylo Flood Loading System". In this system electronic machinery is used and hardly within one minute, 60 tonnes of coal of high grade is loaded. Only the workmen who are well acquainted with the electronic machinery are engaged but not the casual labour. The claim of the petitioners to place them on par with the permanent employees is disputed. It is also disputed that the petitioners are entitled to basic salaries on par with general Mazdoor category-I. It is contended that thousands of casual labour are recruited in the said category-I, but it is stated that whenever vacancies arise the casual labourers who are sponsored by employment exchange are recruited. The regular recruitment procedure cannot be given a go-bye in the case of the petitioners and they are not entitled to any relief in the writ petition. It is stated that there is Industrial Engineering Department in the respondent-company which studies the work load, nature of the job, permanent vacancy position cadre strength and fixes cadre strength on the basis of which recruitment is made. The Union being aware of this position did not support the cause of the petitioners. It is only because of heavy absenteeism that the management is constrained to make requisition for casual labourers. In these circumstances it is prayed that the writ petition be dismissed.