REYROLLE BURN LIMITED Vs. E S I C

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner-company at the material time had a factory at No. 99, Dr. Abani Dutta Road, howrah. It is undisputed that the Employees' state Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter called the said Act) applied to the said factory of the petitioner and the persons employed therein were " employees " as defined by S. 2 (9) of the said Act. The petitioner has claimed that it had been regularly depositing contributions in respect of the " wages" paid to the said employees in accordance with the provisions of the Employees' State Insurance Act.

(2.) ON June 8, 1970 there was a Memorandum of Settlement between the petitioner-company and its workmen for resolving outstanding disputes. The Conciliation Officer, Government of West Bengal also signed the said Memorandum of Settlement. It is not necessary for the present purpose to refer to the terms of the said settlement relating to grade, scales of pay, dearness allowance, etc. The Term No. 54 of the said settlement provided " the incentive scheme shall be as detailed in Annexure III. " the Annexure 111 to the said Memorandum of settlement contained detailed provisions relating to payment of incentive bonus both for hourly rated workers and for monthly paid staff and sub-staff.

(3.) THE case of the petitioner was that the said incentive/production bonus paid by it to its employees was not " wages " and therefore, no contribution was payable by the petitioner under the said Act to the Employees' State insurance Corporation. On the other hand, the employees' State Insurance Corporation claimed that the said incentive/production bonus paid to petitioner's employees was covered by the expression "wages" defined in S. 2 (22) of the said Act and therefore, the Corporation repeatedly demanded immediate payment of the contribution upon the said incentive bonus and threatened legal action in case of default of making such contribution. The petitioner has obtained the present Rule inter alia, for commanding the respondent No. 1 not to demand contribution to the Corporation in respect of the incentive bonus paid by the petitioner to its workmen and further for commanding them not to enforce, execute, proceed with the demand notices for enforcing payment of contribution upon the incentive bonus paid by the petitioner to its workmen.