NAGPUR: In a major setback to South East Central Railway (SECR) and victory of sorts for 152 parcel porters, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court directed it to pay these porters their wages for the past eight months.
Hearing the contempt petition filed by the Parcel Porters Sanghatana (PPS) in July 2012 on Tuesday, Justice P B Varale expressed displeasure over SECR's dilly-dallying tactics in paying wages to the beleaguered porters. The court asked the railways to deposit Rs 10 lakh for the payment of wages, but the officials agreed to deposit Rs 5 lakh, a fact which SECR officials deny.
Justice Varale directed the SECR to follow the orders that had been issued on April 10, 2012 by Justice M N Gilani directing it to provide relief to the porters by paying wages under Section 17-B of the Industrial Dispute Act (IDA) 1947, till the pendency of the matter.
IDA's section 17B states "where in any case, a labour court or tribunal directs reinstatement of any workman and employer prefers any proceedings against such award in a high court or Supreme Court, the employer shall be liable to pay full wages last drawn by the workman during the pendency of such proceedings in the courts."
In 2010, the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT) had twice directed the railways to regularize service of these parcel porters.
The contempt petition was filed against SECR general manager Arunendra Kumar, Bilaspur, and senior divisional commercial manager (SrDCM) Pradeep Kumar.
When contacted, Pradeep Kumar said that the railways has not given any commitment to pay wages to the porters. The court order is under examination by the higher officials at the headquarters in Bilaspur. "We are planning to move the Supreme Court," he added.
However, counsel for SECR Nitin Lambat said that the court agreed to railways readiness to deposit Rs 5 lakh, even as a special leave petition (SLP) will be filed in the Supreme Court.
On the contrary, Rajesh Supatkar, general secretary of the sanghatana, said that the SECR officials agreed to deposit the amount only after the court warned them of dire consequences. As per the Minimum Wages Act, the pending wages to around 152 porters for the past 8 months amounts to roughly Rs 10 lakh.
Supatkar alleged that SECR is not only violating court orders but also flouting Railway Board directives issued in 1983, which state that railways should take immediate steps to ensure that retrenchment provisions of Industrial Dispute Act are strictly complied with and unnecessary litigation is avoided.
"We have been fighting it out for the past 15 years. Despite winning in CGIT and high court, SECR is buying time instead of honouring court orders," Supatkar said.
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