Mumbai: After years of legal struggle, two employees of a travel firm will finally get their salaries and cash allowance arrears allegedly withheld for months in 2014. The labour court had ruled in the employees’ favour in 2018 as the company didn’t appear before the court. It was only last year that the court order was challenged by the travel firm whose plea has now been rejected.
The employees – Balakrishnan and Reema – were employed with Bipin Transport Pvt Ltd, which owed the two over ₹57,000 each. The employees’ advocate Prashant Nayak argued that even their provident fund (PF) was not deposited in their accounts. When they demanded their salaries and PF, they were asked to resign and allegedly booked in a false theft case.
In 2017, the employees approached the labour court
In 2017, the employees approached the labour court, which issued notices to the company and its director but the company didn’t appear in court. A year later, in February 2018, the court passed an ex-parte order in favour of the employees.
When the company did not comply with the order, the employees filed an execution application seeking direction to comply with the orders. Even after receipt of notice, the company was absent in the execution matter, alleged the plea.
On a plea from the employees, the tehsildar office at Kurla and Mulund initiated steps for recovery proceedings against the company and started attachment proceedings of the company director’s house.
Sometime in 2022, the company approached the labour court, seeking to set aside its February 2021 order.
Company claimed that it was not served notice
The company claimed that it was not served notice of the employees’ plea in March 2021. It further contended that the notice of execution application was served to the director’s daughter. The company also blamed its lawyers and said it had no knowledge of the ex-parte order in 2018.
The labour court rejected the arguments based on records and said that “the conduct of the applicant (company) shows that it’s not interested to conduct the matter but prolong it”.
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