INDERJIT Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners who are working as Workshop Attendants in various government secondary Schools of Punjab lament discriminatory treatment meted out to them of the question of their pay as compared to Laboratory Attendants. The claim of the petitioners is sought to be made out form the following facts :-

(2.) The petitioners as referred to above are Workshop Attendants and are matriculates with Science. Some of the petitioners have even obtained ITI diploma in addition to their qualification with matric with Science. The Punjab Government decided to vocationalise education and for that purposes schools were selected and various vocational trades were introduced as part of curriculum in them. The government also sanctioned huge funds for the construction of Workshops and for the purchase of various instruments, apparatus and appliances and other material for giving training in various vocational trades. Petitioners were recruited as Workshop Attendants for such schools where vocational education was to be imparted and the said decision was quite in lines with the existing system of providing Laboratory Attendants to man laboratories for the teaching of science. It is the case of the petitioners that the government prescribes same qualifications for Workshop Attendants as were provided for Laboratory Attendants inasmuch as most of the Laboratory Attendants who are recruited and were matric with Science, the government decided to convert the post of Laboratory Attendants from Class-IV to Class-III and they were given the grades of Rs. 400-600 provided that they were matriculates as is evident from the letter Annexure P-1. Petitioners further contend that the duties of Workshop Attendants are to keep the workshop clean, the grease the workshop instruments and to keep them in a systematic position before the period of practical, to arrange the instruments on the tables and after the period to assemble the instruments and to arrange its demonstration for the vocational teachers and to impart necessary assistance to them. These are the duties of Workshop Attendants and also the Laboratory Attendants. The claim of the petitioners is thus based upon the principle of equal pay for equal work and inasmuch as the petitioners' pay has not been enhanced commensurate to that of Laboratory Attendants, they have sought for the necessary relief through the present petition.

(3.) Before, however, filing the present petition the petitioners also demanded conversion of their post from Class-IV to Class-III at the same pay as in the case of Laboratory Attendant at least for those Workshop Attendants who had passed matric with Science. The case was espoused through Union i.e. Government Vocational School Attendants Union, to the State Government and as a result of negotiations, it was decided that the Workshop Attendants would be given the grades of Rs., 400-600 i.e. equivalent to Laboratory Attendants, the representation of the petitioners ultimately came for decision by the Director, Public Instructions, Punjab, who vide letter No. 5/30-80 dated March 18, 1980, a copy of which has been Annexure P-3, came to the conclusion that duties of Workshop Attendants were the same as that of the Laboratory Attendants and in the letter aforesaid, a suggestion was made that the Workshop Attendants who had passed matric with ITI certificate or matric with Science should be given the grade of Rs. 400-600 by equating them to the Laboratory Attendants. Even though the Director, Public Instructions had equated the posts of the petitioners with that of Laboratory Attendants, no final decision was rendered leading thus to various petitions filed from time to time culminating into a final representation sent through Union vide letter dated February 7, 1986. The petitioners through Union received a reply from the Director, Public Instructions conveying that the government vide order dated February 19, 1986 has refused to accept the demand.