Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 108 of 1964. Appeal by special leave from the Award dated May 11, 1962, of the Industrial Tribunal, Bihar, Patna in Reference No. 4 of 1961.

Ranen Roy, Jai Krishan, G.S. Chatterjee, E. Udayarathnam for A.K. Nag, for the appellants.

Niren De, Addl. Solicitor-General and Naunit Lal, for the respondent.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Wanchoo, J. This is an appeal by special leave against the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Bihar. It relates to the discharge of 119 workmen of the respondent who were employed as cane carrier mazdoors or as cane carrier supervisors or jamadars. All these were seasonal workmen. It is necessary to set out in some detail the circumstances leading to the discharge. The respondent is a sugar factory and the crushing season starts usually in the first half of November each year. We are concerned in the present appeal with November and December 1960. It appears that from the season 1956-57, the respondent introduced an incentive bonus scheme in the factory. The scheme continued thereafter from season to season with certain changes. It also appears that in the beginning of each season, the respondent used to put forward the incentive bonus scheme and consult the workmen. The same thing was done when the season 1960-61 was about to start in November 1960. But the scheme for this season proposed by the respondent contained certain changes which were apparently not acceptable to the workmen. One of the features in the scheme was that the crushing of sugar cane per day should be 32,000 maunds. The general secretary of the union of the workmen suggested certain alterations for the consideration of the respondent on November 7, 1960, and one of the main alterations suggested was that the norm for per day's crushing should be 125,000 maunds of cane and thereafter incentive bonus should be given at a certain rate. No agreement seems to have reached on the incentive bonus scheme, and the complaint of the respondent was that the secretary incited the workmen to go slow in consequence of the change in the scheme. Consequently mild go-slow in cane the carrier department which is the basic department in a sugar mill began from the very start of the season on November 10, 1960. The L/P(N)4SCI respondent's case further was that on November 27, 1960, the workmen in the cane carrier department started in combination with one another to go-slow deliberately and wilfully and in a planned manner and thus reduced the average daily crushing to 26,000 maunds cane which was much less than the average crushing in previous seasons. This conduct of the workmen was said to be highly prejudicial to the respondent and besides being technically unsafe, had brought into existence an acute shortage in the fuel position which might have resulted in the complete stoppage of the mill and a major breakdown of the machinery. When the position became serious the respondent issued a general notice on December 15, 1960 inviting the attention of the workmen concerned to this state of affairs which had been continuing of any rate since November 27, 1960. This notice was in the following terms:--

(x) [1962] 3 S.C.R,. 684.

resorted to at the cane carrier. Thus it appears that resorting to go-slow was a common practice in this factory. It is in the background of this persistent attitude of the workmen that we have to see what happened in November 1960. We have already referred to the fact that the workmen were dissatisfied with the new incentive bonus scheme proposed by the respondent. It is not necessary to go into the merits of this new scheme which was proposed in September 1960. But it appears that when there was dispute in the 1959-60 season on the question of how much cane should be crushed, the secretary of the union had accepted in a conference with the Assistant Labour Commissioner that there had been a drop in the amount of cane crushed, though he maintained that it was still the average crush. He had also stated then that the workmen were dissatisfied with the incentive bonus scheme in that season and had withdrawn the extra efforts they were putting in after the introduction of the incentive scheme for the first time in 1956-57. Further it was admitted by the secretary in his evidence that when the bonus scheme was proposed in 1960-61, it was considered by the workmen in a meeting and it was decided that if the new system was introduced without the consent of the workmen they would not put in any extra effort for giving more than what was the normal crush in the mill. The evidence also shows that there were conferences about the new scheme and at one stage the respondent suggested that the norm should be 30,000 maunds crush per day while the union was agreeable to 29,500 maunds per day. But there was no agreement in this behalf and so that workmen carried out their resolve not to put in extra efforts to give more than the average normal crushing per day. Thus the season which began in November 1960 started with the withdrawal of extra efforts by the workmen which in plain terms means that the workman were not prepared to do what they had been doing in this previous season 1959-60 and were slowing down production as compared to what it was in 1959-60. It is in the background of this history and this admission that we have to look broadly into the evidence to see whether the tribunal's conclusion that there was go-slow is justified. The main contention on behalf of the respondent in this connection is that one has to see is that is called crushing speed for a day of 24 hours and it is this crushing speed which would determine whether there was go-slow during the period in dispute. It has been urged that crushing speed per 24 hours is different from the actual crushing per day or the average crushing for a period, for the actual crushing per day from which the crushing speed is arrived at depends on a number of factors, particularly it depends on the amount of stoppages that take place during the day and if there are more stoppages the actual crushing on a particular day would necessarily go down. Crushing speed per twenty- four hours on the other hand is arrived at by excluding the stoppages and then working out what would be the amount of cane crushed in 24 hours if there had been no stoppages. The case of the respondent further is that when it gave the notice on December 15, 1960 asking for a crush of 32,000 maunds per day it really meant that the workmen should work in such a way as to give a crushing speed of 32,000 maunds per day, though the words "crushing speed" were not actually used in the notice. It is however pointed out that the notice when it mentions 32,000 maunds as the normal crush expected per day excluded stoppages other than those due to over-loading or under-loading of the cane carrier. Therefore, the respondent wanted the workmen to give a crushing speed of 32,000 maunds per day which would exclude stoppages, the only exception being stoppages due to over- loading or underloading, which, according to the respondent, is due to the deliberate action of the cane carrier workmen to cause stoppages, We think that this explanation of what the respondent meant when it gave the notice of average daily crush of 32.000 maunds is reasonable, for it is impossible to accept that 32,000 maunds were required to be crushed irrespective of stoppages, beyond the control of the workmen. Further it is not in dispute that the labour force was more or less the same throughout these years, and therefore we have to see whether during the period from November 27 to December 15, 1960 there was any significant drop in the crushing speed. If there was such a significant drop that could only be due to go-slow tactics which have been euphemistically called withdrawal of extra efforts. It is necessary therefore to took at the charts produced in this case to determine this question. The appellants mainly relay on chart Ex. W-3. That is however a chart of actual crushing per day during the period from 1954-55 to 1960-61 and has nothing to do with crushing speed which in our opinion would be the determining factor in finding out whether there was go-slow. The actual crush may vary as we have already said due to so many factors, particularly due to stoppages for one reason or the other. The respondent produced another chart Ex. W-4 which shows the crushing speed for the entire season from 1954-55 to 1959-60. We consider that it would not be proper to take the figures for the years 1956-57 to 1959-60 in which years incentive bonus schemes were in force and which according to the workmen resulted in extra efforts on their part. But the figures of 1954-55 and 1955-56 would be relevant because in these years there was no incentive bonus scheme and no night weighment 'of carts. The workmen have also produced a chart showing cane crushed, actual crushing days and crushing per day; but this chart does not show the crushing speed and does not take into account the stoppages. It merely shows the actual number of working days and the average per day. That however would not be an accurate way of finding out whether in fact there was go-slow during the period with which we are concerned. The respondent's chart Ex. W-4 while showing the same amount of actual crushing also shows what would be the crushing speed per 24 hours after excluding stoppages. This chart in our opinion is the proper chart for determining whether there was go slow during the revelant period. Now according to this chart (Ex. W-4) the daily average crushing speed in 1954-55 was 29,784 maunds and in 1955-56, 30,520 maunds without incentive bonus and without night weighment of carts. It appears that from the middle of 1959-60 season night weighment of carts started and it is not in dispute that resulted in an increase in the daily crushing and this increase is put at over 2,000' maunds per day by the respondent; the secretary of the union admitted that this would result in an increase of about 2,500 maunds per day. We have already said that in the years 1954 and 1955 there was no incentive bonus and if these figures are accepted as giving the average crushing speed per day (when there was no incentive bonus and no weighment of carts at night) it would in our opinion be not improper to accept that the crushing speed with night weighment of carts would be in the neighbourhood of 32,000 maunds per day in view of the admission that night weighment of carts resulted in an increase of crushing by about-2,000 maunds to 2,500 maunds per day. Therefore, when the respondent gave notice on December 15, 1960 that the average crushing per day should be 32,000 maunds excluding stoppages (except those due to over-loading or underloading of the cane carrier, for which the workmen would be responsible) it Cannot be said that the respondent had fixed something which was abnormal. It is true that when negotiations were taking place in connection with the incentive bonus scheme for the year 1960-61, the respondent was prepared to accept a crushing speed of 30,000 maunds per day above which the incentive bonus scheme would apply. That is however easily understood for a proper incentive bonus scheme always fixes a norm which is slightly lower than the average in order that there may be greater incentive to labour to produce more than the average. Even so, when the incentive bonus scheme for 1960-61, was not acceptable to the workmen and they had already decided to withdraw what they called extra effort, the respondent would not be unjustified in asking for the full average crushing speed based on the production of the years 1954-55 and 1955- 56, when there was no incentive bonus scheme and no night weighment of carts.

Let us now turn to the actual position between November 27 and December 15, 1960. This will appear from chart Ex. W-7.

That chart shows a crushing speed of 29,859 maunds per day from November 10 to 26, when, according to the respondent, there was only mild go-slow. We are however concerned with the period from November 27 to December 15, 1960 and the crushing speed for 24 hours during that period was 27,830. Now if we take the average crushing speed as 32,000 maunds per 24 hours without any adjustment or even a little over 31,000 maunds with adjustment following upon the rule relating to exemption from s. 55, there is certainly a significant drop in average crushing speed during this period. Further we find that there is a significant drop even as compared to the period between November 10 to 26, 1960, inasmuch as the drop was over 2,000 maunds per day. Therefore it cannot be said that the tribunal was incorrect in its conclusion that there had been go-slow during the period from November 27 to December 15. It may be added that when comparisons are made on the basis of crushing speed and labour force is more or less constant, as is the ease here, other minor factors to which our attention was drawn on behalf of the appellants during argument do not matter at all. Even if we take the figure of 30,000 maunds as the crushing speed which the respondent had put forward at the time of the discussion on the incentive bonus scheme, we find that though there was not much difference during the period from November 10 to November 26, there was a significant drop of over 2,000 maunds per day from November 27 to December 15. Looking at the matter in this broad way--and that is all that we are prepared to do, for we are examining a finding of fact of the tribunal--we cannot say that its conclusion that there was go-slow between November 27 and December 15 is not justified.