The Supreme Court on 27th April, 2018 said that Members of the Chennai Port Trust Industrial Employees Co-operative Canteen Limited working in the canteen are entitled to claim the same benefit and perks which are being given to the regular permanent employees of the Chennai Port Trust. This judgement was given by the bench of Hon’ble Justices R.K. Agarwal and Abhay Manohar Sapre in the case of Chennai Port Trust V. The Chennai Port Trust Industrial Employees Canteen Workers Welfare Association And Ors. [CIVIL APPEAL No.1381 OF 2010]
The appellant “Chennai Port Trust” is situated atChennai. It has been in existence for the last many decades and has a large administrative and technical set up to run their multifarious activities on the Port. Large numbers of workers/employees are employed by the Port Trust who work round the clock in shifts to run and maintain the activities of the Port Trust. These Port Trust workers/employees are provided with the facility of canteen. A Co-Operative Society called “Chennai Port Trust Industrial Employees Co-operative Canteen Limited” runs the Canteen. It has been running since 1964. This canteen has employed a large number of employees to run the canteen. The employees working in the canteen have formed an Association known as “Chennai Port Trust Industrial Employees Canteen Workers Welfare Association” (for short called “Association”)-respondent No.1 herein.
The Association-respondent No.1 herein filed a writ petition being W.P. No.6872 of 2001 in the High Court at Madras against the appellant herein (Chennai Port Trust) espousing the cause of their members (employees working in the Canteen) and sought a writ of mandamus against the appellant – Chennai Port Trust (respondent No.3 in the writ petition) directing the appellant to treat the employees working in the Canteen to be the regular employees of the Chennai Port Trust and accordingly pay them all attendant and monetary benefits at par with the regular employees of the Chennai Port Trust.
According to the writ petitioner (employees concerned), they have been working in the Canteen for decades and regularly catering and fulfilling the needs of the employees of the Port Trust. According to the Association, the members of the Association -employees working in the canteen are entitled to claim the same benefit and perks which are being given to the regular permanent employees of the Chennai Port Trust. The Association also pointed out the similar instances of other government organizations wherein the benefits of this nature were given to the employees working in the organizations alike the members of the Association in question.
The Chennai Port Trust mainly opposed the writ petition on two issues. First, the Chennai Port Trust has no control whatsoever over any of the activities of the Canteen in question including any control over its employees and second, the question as to whether the canteen employees are to be treated as employees of the Chennai Port Trust or not is a question of fact and, therefore, the writ petition is not the effective remedy to decide this question. According to the Chennai Port Trust, such issues should be raised before the Industrial Tribunal for its adjudication.
The Writ Court (Single Judge) allowed the writ petition filed by the Association(respondent No.1 herein) and accordingly issued a writ of mandamus against the appellant (Chennai Port Trust), as prayed by the writ petitioner in their writ petition. In other words, the writ Court granted the reliefs claimed by the writ petitioner in their writ petition.
The appellant (Chennai Port Trust) felt aggrieved and filed intra court appeal before the Division Bench in the High Court. By impugned judgment, the Division Bench dismissed the appeal and upheld the order of the Single Judge, which has given rise to filing of the present appeal by way of special leave by the Chennai Port Trust.
After listening to both the sides in the appeal the Supreme Court said ” we find no merit in the appeal. In our considered view, the Writ Court (Single Judge) and the Division Bench were right in their reasoning and the conclusion.The Division Bench, in our opinion, rightly relied upon the decision of this Court in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. and Anr. vs Shramik Sena & Ors., (1999) 6 SCC 439 and compared the facts of the above case with that of the case at hand and found great similarities in both for granting relief to the members of the respondent (Association).
The Supreme Court further added that ” If we see the Indian Petrochemical’s case, the similarity of the factual issues is quite startling. In that case –
(a) The canteen has been there since the inception of the appellant’s factory.
(b) The workmen have been employed for long years and despite a change of contractors, the workers have continued to be employed in the canteen.
(c) The premises, furniture, fixture, fuel, electricity, utensils etc. have been provided for by the appellant.
(d) The wages of the canteen workers have to be reimbursed by the appellant.
(e) The supervision and control on the canteen is exercised by the appellant through its authorised officer, as can be seen from the various clauses of the contract between the appellant and the contractor.
(f) The contractor is nothing but an agent or a manager of the appellant, who works completely under the supervision, control and directions of the appellant.
(g) The workmen have the protection ofcontinuous employment in the establishment.
On the basis of the above facts, the Supreme Court arrived at the opinion that the workmen were the workmen of the management and by the same process of reasoning, the learned single Judge also came to the conclusion that the canteen workmen were the workmen of the Port Trust.