BHARAT COKING COAL LIMITED REPRESENTED BY THE EMPLOYERS Vs. THEIR WORKMEN REPRESENTED BY THE ORGANIZING SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this writ petition, the Petitioner has prayed for quashing the award dated 6.9.02 of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal No. I, Dhanbad.

(2.) THE short fact of the case is that the concerned workmen claimed that they were engaged as co -operative workers at Kankanee Colliery' in 1987. They worked continuously till the year 1989 in the underground colliery as stone cutters, Tyandals performing the jobs like recovery and carrying of old pipes and installation of stopping, mud cleaning etc. under the direct control of the colliery Management. The work was for the benefit of the Management under their direct control But they were not given due wages. When they made a demand to that regard and claimed for their regularization, the Management stopped them from doing their duties. The concerned workmen, through the Sponsoring Union, ventilated their protest before the Assistant Labour Commissioner (Central), Dhanbad. The Assistant Labour Commissioner called upon the Management to submit necessary records concerning the concerned workmen in order to conciliate the disputes, but the Management did not produce any recorded saying that the concerned workmen were engaged by the contractor and the Management had no concern with them. Due to the said adamant attitude on the part of the Management, the conciliation failed and on submission of failure report, the appropriate Government referred the dispute to learned Tribunal in the following terms:

(3.) BOTH the parties led their evidences before learned Tribunal. After the evidences were closed and arguments were advanced by the parties, learned Tribunal considered the facts and necessary materials on record and came to the conclusion that all the concerned workmen, except one, had been working underground continuously for a period of 190 days in one calendar year i.e. in 1988. The nature of job done by them was of perennial. For regularization of the concerned workmen, the Management itself had taken initiative. A Joint Committee was formed consisting of representatives of both the sides, which conducted inspection of the records and submitted a report in support of the claim of the concerned workmen. But the Management sat over the matter. There was a clear circular in Ext. W/1 for absorption and regularization of the co -operative workers or contractor's workmen and on that basis several identically situated workmen were regularized by the Management. Learned Tribunal also considered the other fats, circumstances and materials on record and concluded that the concerned workmen were engaged for performing the jobs of the Management. They had been continuously working for a long period. The nature of work performed by them was of permanent and perennial nature and was of prohibited category. The Joint Committee report is also in favour of the workmen and as such their claim is justified. Learned Tribunal, thus, held that out of 20 persons shown in the Annexure to the order of the reference, except one Jiondra Yadav, whose name is at Sl. No. 17, all others are deemed to be the employees of the Management of the Kankanee Colliery under Sijua Area of M/S B.C.C.L. and that they deserve to be regularized in the services of the Management. Learned Tribunal, accordingly, directed the Management to regularize the services of 19 concerned workmen.