Prakash Murlidhar Dalal vs Tata Engineering & Locomotive Co. Ltd. & ... on 17 January, 1996
The decision in S.G. Chemicals and Dyes Trading Employees' Union v. S.G. Chemicals and Dyes Trading Limited is not of much assistance to the workmen. The management in that case was running its business in pharmaceuticals at three places. The Pharmaceutical Division was at Worli, the Laboratory and Dyes Division was at Trombay and the Marketing and Sales Division was at Churchgate. In 1984 the company which was managing the said three divisions of business was sold out. As the buyers proposed to handle the future sales of the company through their own distribution channels, they found that the services of the staff working at the Churchgate office were no longer required. Therefore, the management closed down the office at Churchgate. The question was whether there was functional integrality between the office at the Churchgate and the factory at Trombay. This Court on a consideration of the material before it in that case, held that the functions of the Churchgate division and the Trombay factory were neither separate nor independent but were so integrally connected as to constitute the Churchgate and the Trombay factory into one establishment, because the Churchgate division used to purchase the raw material required by the Trombay factory for producing or processing the goods, it used to market and sell the goods so manufactured or processed by the factory and it also used to disburse the salary and other employment benefits and maintain accounts, etc. of the workmen. These were considered to be integral parts of the manufacturing activities of the factory at Trombay, because the factory could never have functioned independently without the Churchgate division being there. It is not the case of the workmen in the present case that the II Unit could not continue to function after the closure of the I Unit. As already mentioned, the II Unit is continuing to function as usual even now notwithstanding the stoppage of the activities at the I Unit. The question of application of S. 25-G of the Act arises only when the services of the workmen are retrenched.