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In the writ petition, it was emphasized that the nature of work carried out by the contract labour is perennial; merely because the Corporation has chosen to employ system of contract labour for discharging its statutory obligations, the contract labour does not cease to be workman of the principal employer the Corporation. According to the writ petitioners (Union), if at all, contract labour system was to be permitted, it could be done only in accordance with the provisions of the CLRA Act; an employer could not be allowed to carry on work through contract labour unless provisions of the statute were strictly complied with and that the Corporation was carrying on the work through contract labour for almost 15 years even without registering itself as a principal employer, that too through contractors who were not holding any licence under the CLRA Act. It is the further case of the Union that it kept on complaining to the Labour Commissioner about the gross violation of law and the legal rights of the workmen concerned. The Labour Commissioner, after investigation into the complaints, addressed letter dated 18.7.1998 to the Chief Secretary of the State recommending abolition of the contract labour system observing that Solid Waste Management Department is one of the sections of the Corporation, which is in operation for more than hundred years; in this Department the work of collection, transportation, dumping and disposal of the garbage, refuse, debris etc. is performed. The Labour Commissioner also stated in the letter that the Solid Waste Management Department had applied for registration as principal employer under the CLRA Act on 17th December, 1996. In the meanwhile, the writ petition had already been filed, so the said application was kept in abeyance. He also stated that none of the contractors had obtained licence under the provisions of the CLRA Act. He further pointed out that by the letters of 25th October, 1997 and 19th May, 1998, the Union had made representations to the Chairman of the State Contract Labour Advisory Board requesting him to advise the State Government to abolish the system of employment of contract labour in the solid Waste Management Department of the Corporation. In the letter of the Labour Commissioner, it is also stated that the work performed by the workers employed by the contractors is of regular and permanent nature. In the writ petition, it is also stated that the contract entered into by the Corporation with the contractors is a sham arrangement. The workmen concerned with the writ petition are in law and in fact employees of the Corporation, particularly so, when the task of sweeping and cleaning roads, gullies and removal of debris and garbage etc. are the statutory duties to be performed by the Corporation under Sections 61(C), 365 and 367 of the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 (for short the `Act'). It is also stated in the writ petition that the conditions of service of these workmen are horrible and inasmuch as they are required to handle corpses of animals, excreta of animals and human-beings from house gullies and garbage dumps toxic and other danger material etc. In support of the writ petition, reliance was placed to the Circular dated 26.4.1985 issued by the Govt. of Maharashtra relating to Bhangi Mukti (prevention of scavenging), Circular dated 30.8.1996 issued by the Corporation on the precautionary measures to be taken while engaging contract labour, the letter dated 27.11.1996 addressed to the Additional Commissioner, Corporation, by the then Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Corporation Shri Hareshwar Patil stating that the garbage workers were not properly treated; there was no difference between the permanent workers of the Corporation and the contract workers; their conditions were really pitiable and steps are to be taken to improve the situation. Reference is also made to the letter of the Labour Commissioner dated 18.7.1998 addressed to the Chief Secretary of the State requesting to recommend the matter to the State Contract Labour Advisory Board for abolition and prohibition of the contract labour system. The Minister for Labour of the State addressed a letter dated 4.2.1999 to the Commissioner of the Corporation recommending for abolishing the existing contract system. In the writ petition, the following reliefs were sought :-

Further, according to the Corporation, under Section 367 of the Act its Commissioner provides or appoints in proper and convenient situations public receptacles, depots and places for the temporary deposit or final disposal of the refuse/debris. Under Section 368, if the owner or occupier of any trade premises desires permission to deposit trade refuse, collected daily or periodically from the premises, temporarily upon any place appointed by the Commissioner in this behalf, he may, on the application and on payment of such charges, allow the applicant to deposit refuse/debris. The Corporation merely provides its services to those generators of debris like MHADA or private land owners or builders, who are liable to pay stipulated charges for the work of disposal of debris performed by the Corporation. For the purpose of removal of debris the Corporation accepts separate tenders from the contractors. This work, not being the statutory responsibility of the Corporation, is not done by its employees. Copy of the tender submitted by the contractor for removal of debris and copy of the contract entered into by the Corporation with the contractors, as per Ex.-5 and 6, clearly show that the workers engaged in the said activity of removal of debris are not employees of the Corporation. The allegations that merely paper arrangements are made by the Corporation to avoid statutory liabilities and that such contracts are sham and illegal are denied by the Corporation. It is also stated that the Corporation has been taking stringent action against the contractors so that they should comply with the statutory requirements such as Minimum Wages Act and the contractors are also directed to provide the labourers with good quality of raincoats with caps, gum boots and hand gloves etc. It is denied that the Corporation is using the contract labour as slaves or bonded labour. It is the specific case of the Corporation that the workers engaged by the contractors are not its employees It is further the case of the Corporation that CLRA Act does not abolish contract labour as alleged by the Union; the power to abolish contract labour vests with the appropriate Government and in this case the appropriate Government is State Government. The appropriate Government before abolition of contract labour under Section 10 of the CLRA Act must consult State Board, constituted under Section 4 of the CLRA Act being an expert body, before contract labour can be provided. Further, the relevant factors such as whether the work is incidental or necessary for the establishment is to be taken into consideration as contemplated under Section 10 of the CLRA Act. Based on these statements made in the affidavit the Corporation prayed for dismissal of the writ petition.

We do not consider it necessary to refer to the decisions cited by the learned counsel in the light of the authoritative pronouncement of the Constitution Bench of this Court aforementioned.

Now, we proceed to consider the validity and correctness of the impugned judgment and order in the light of judgment of the Constitution Bench in SAIL case (supra). The High Court held that the work entrusted to the members of the Union continued to be basically the work of the Corporation itself of perennial nature; the Corporation has chosen to carry out the work under so-called system of labour contract without complying with the provisions of the CLRA Act and as such the labour contract was a camouflage. We must state here itself that the Union in the writ petition alleged that the labour contract was sham and the Corporation specifically denied it in its counter affidavit but the High Court did not go into this question and did not record a finding that the labour contract in the present case was sham or a camouflage considering the material on record; even otherwise this being a serious and disputed fact in terms of the Constitution Bench judgment aforementioned, the High court could not have appropriately adjudicated on the issue exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution. It appears to us that the High Court proceeded to conclude that the labour contract was not genuine and the workers of the Union were employees of the Corporation because the Corporation and the contractors did not comply with the provisions of the CLRA Act. Conclusion that the contract was sham or it was only camouflage cannot be arrived at as a matter of law for non-compliance of the provisions of the CLRA Act but a finding must be recorded based on evidence particularly when disputed by an industrial adjudicator as laid down in various decisions of this Court including the Constitution Bench judgment in SAIL. The cases on which the High Court placed reliance were the cases where finding of fact was recorded by the labour courts on evidence. In para 34 of the impugned judgment, it is stated :-

The material referred to relates to the complaints of the Union, recommendations of the Labour Commissioner, Labour Minister and the Labour Contract Advisory Board in regard to abolition of contract labour under Section 10 of CLRA Act but that material could not be a foundation or basis to say that the labour contract was sham, camouflage or a devised to deny the statutory benefits to the workers. From the judgment under challenge, it is clear that Air India case (supra) weighed with the High Court which judgment now stands overruled as already stated above. The High Court rejected the contention that jurisdiction to abolish the contract labour system vested with the appropriate Government under Section 10 of CLRA Act and that power could be exercised after obtaining advice of the Contract Labour Advisory Board which in turn had to keep several factors enumerated in clauses (a) to