In a setback for Tata Motors, the Bombay High Court has held that the company resorted to unfair labour practices with thousands of its temporary workers by recruiting them first and then letting them work for some months and then terminating their services and after a brief gap, again recruiting them and terminating them within a few months.
The HC held that the only intention of the company was to ensure that these workers do not complete 240 days, which would have made them eligible for being appointed on a permanent basis.
A bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge has accordingly ordered the automobile giant to pay compensation to the 52 employees, who moved the HC challenging the orders of an Industrial Court in Pune, refusing any relief to them.
The temporary employees represented by advocate Rahul Kamerkar highlighted the fact that the company had a special department that recruited temporary employees multiple times. It pointed out that not a single such employee was allowed to work for more than 240 days and in fact, their services were terminated just when they completed 238 days or around 225 days.
After the termination, the employees were again recruited after a gap of half a year and the pattern repeated for around 2,500 to 3,000 such temporary employees.
Justice Ghuge, in his orders passed on February 25, noted that some of the temporaries worked for almost 238 days in one round, several of them have worked in several rounds in between 225 to 235 days. "These temporaries were disengaged when they were very close to 240 days and some were even short by 2 to 8 days. The modus operandi adopted by the company has thus been fully exposed," the judge noted.
"The management neither has any explanation, which ought to be based on evidence and not by way of arguments nor was any evidence placed before the Labour Court to establish a convincing reason as to why these temporaries were not allowed to complete 240 days when most of them had reached in between 230 days to 238 days," the bench said, adding, "This demolishes the case of the management that the temporaries’ engagement was strictly co-related to the rise and fall of manufacturing activities exactly after completing seven months in employment. It was a complete pretence."
"I have come to a firm conclusion that in hundreds of cases, the company has created a farcical picture by posing that the work allotted to the temporaries was limited only to the maximum extent of 7 months. The dedicated department for the engagement of temporary workers apparently kept a close watch on the duration of employment of these employees. This indicates that the company has created an eye-wash and paperwork with the intention of creating evidence that no worker had completed 240 days," Justice Ghuge opined.
Accordingly, Justice Ghuge drafted a compensation slab, which Tata Motors will have to adhere to. Following is the compensation ordered by the bench based on the tenure an individual worker worked for.
Term of 211 days and above - Rs.75,000/-
Term in between 180 to 210 days - Rs.65,000/-
Term in between 150 to 179 days - Rs.55,000/-
Term in between 120 to 149 days - Rs.45,000/-
Term in between 90 to 119 days - Rs.35,000/-
Term in between 60 to 89 days - Rs.25,000/-
Below 60 days - No compensation
