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Common order dated December 2, 2005 passed by the Labour Court, Coimbatore, holding that inasmuch as there was ‘deemed conciliation' before conciliation officer, dismissal orders dated June 13, 2002 of management of Together Textile Mills India P Ltd of 10 workers was illegal since the action of the management was without approval from the Conciliation Officer, the Madras High Court has held.
Hearing a writ petition of the management challenging the Labour Court's (R-1) order, Mr Justice K. Chandru ruled that there was no conciliation “in the eye of law” due to a strike notice, as the petitioner company was not proved to be ‘public utility service', and question of remanding the matter for further decision would not arise. In view of this, since contesting workmen had not established that the petitioner-mill was a public utility service, consequential notice to jurisdictional conciliation officer and deemed conciliation provided u/s 20(1) of Industrial Disputes Act would not be attracted.
Therefore, Judge said, question of invoking the ratio in “Jaipur Zila” case [2002(1) LLN 639 = (2002) 2 SCC 244 (Jaipur Zila Sahakari Boomi Vikas Bank Ltd vs Ram Gopal Sharma] for claiming wages under premise that there was violation of Section 33(1) would not arise.
By impugned order, the R-1 calculated monetary benefits in favour of the dismissed workmen and computed that each of them was entitled for certain sums.
Aggrieved by the common order, the writ petition came to be filed.
According to the workmen, order of their dismissal was void and they were eligible for wages as if there was no dismissal. The Petitioner-management was a public utility service and management did not comply with mandatory provision of Section 33(1) and 33(2) and inasmuch as they did not seek approval from the Conciliation Officer. The management contended that theirs was not a 100 per cent export-oriented unit and it could not be held to be a public utility service. The strike notice of union was not valid and hence there could not be a deemed conciliation.
The judge allowed writ petition.
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