ASSOCIATED CEMENT COMPANIES LIMITED BAMANGAWAN AND KYMORE MINES KYMORE MP Vs. G C AGARWALA PRESIDING OFFICER CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this petition the Award, dated 16th February 1970 (Annexure A), delivered by respondent No. 1, the Presiding Officer, Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Jabalpur, is under challenge.

(2.) THE Associated Cement Companies Ltd. (the petitioner here) carries on the business of manufacture of cement and has cement factories at various places in India. It also carries on the business of mining limestone which is used as raw material for the manufacture of cement. The present dispute is with the workers at the mines of Bamangawan and Kymore. They are represented by the Kymore Quarry Karmachari Sangh, Kymore (respondent No. 2 ).

(3.) ON the recommendations of the Wage Board the wages to be paid to workers engaged in cement industry have been fixed by the petitioner-Company. The pattern adopted by the Wage Board was to divide the workers in five categories, namely, (a) to (e), the last category being that of unskilled workers. The wages fixed for category (e) being the lowest and those of other categories being graduated upwards. It appears that after the Wage Board Award was announced, a grievance was made that the Wage Board had not taken into consideration the fact that in the quarrying operations of the limestone quarries certain special and heavy equipment is used which requires special skill and also calls for strenuous work. In a Bilateral Agreement (Annexure B), dated 23rd June 1967, that matter was also settled. The settlement was reached between the petitioner-Company on the one side and the 15 unions of the workers from various parts of India, including Kymore Quarry Karmachari Sangh, Kymore, on the other. The relevant part of the settlement is to the following effect: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_194_MPLJ_1972Html1.htm</FRM>