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including all the benefits and service conditions applicable to such regular employees and remaining contract labourers are paid wages as are being paid to these 285 at present. Shri Sankar Sana, member while generally agreeing with the member-convenor, had recommended that he was in agreement with the member- convenor, had recommended that he was in agreement with the first option that is abolition of contract labour because the workmen have completed more than 240 days continuous service in the establishment and should be absorbed with retrospective effect. Shri Khisty, member in his dissenting note, had recommended that the contract labour may not be prohibited. However, same wages should be paid to these categories of contract workers employed by M/s Oil India Limited (Pipeline Division) as are being paid to the contract workers as per the settlement dated 23.12.92 between the management and the union.

c. The Act has already been upheld by the Supreme Court as not unconstitutional, in Gammon India Ltd. & Ors. vs. Union of India & Ors., (1974) 1 SCC 596.

d. CGIT has not given complete immunity to the petitioner, IOC apropos employment of contractual workers. He submits that the order of the CGIT, while permitting engagement of contract workers, still required that they be paid minimum of pay scale of wages of regular employees. He submits that this was never paid, and must now be paid. e. Both the CGIT‟s order and the Report of the Committee have observed that work being done by many of the contract workers are of a perennial nature.

ANALYSIS

41.The sum of submissions made by Mr. Koura is that IOC is aggrieved by the Impugned Notification on, effectively, four counts:

a. Failure to comply with the requirements of Section 10(2) of the Act by failing to consider all relevant factors, particularly the socio-economic background leading to employment of contract workers at the Mathura Refinery. These workers are landless unskilled persons who were engaged during the construction phase of the refinery, and who did not qualify to be absorbed. Their functioning as contract workers is their only source of livelihood, which will inevitably be lost if the Impugned Notification is sustained.

Non-consideration of socio-economic background leading to employment of contract workers

54.Though it was submitted that the respondent No. 1 has issued the Impugned Notification without understanding the socio-economic background leading to employment of contract workers, I find this submission to be unsustainable.