1966 (11) TMI 86

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.... of the agreement between the appellants and the workmen. Therefore, the question has arisen; whether absence of stipulation for payment of the overtime wages in the original contract of employment, would take away such remuneration paid towards the overtime work from the definition of the word `wages' within the meaning of Section 2(22) of the Act. The said section reads as under: "`Wages' means all remuneration paid or payable in cash to an employee, if the terms of the contract of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled and includes any payment to an employee in respect of any period of authorised leave, lock-out, strike which is not illegal or lay-off and other additional remuneration, if any paid at intervals not exceeding two months, but does not include- (a) any contribution paid by the employer to any pension fund or provident fund, or under this Act; (b) an, travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession; (c) any sum paid to the person employed to defray special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment; or (d) any gratuity payable on discharge; Shri Kailash Vasdev, learned counsel for the appellants in two....

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....r connected with work of, the factory or establishment, whether such work is done by the employee in this factory or establishment elsewhere; or (ii) who is employed or through an immediate employer on the premises of the factory or establishment or under supervision of the principal employer or his agent on work which is ordinarily part of the work of the factory or establishment or which is preliminary to the work carried on in or incidental to the purpose of the factory or establishment; or (iii) whose services are temporarily lent or let on hire to the principal employer by the person with whom the person whose services are so lent or let on hire his entered into a contract of service; and include any person employed for wages on any work connected with the administration of the factory or establishment or any part, department or branch thereof or with the purchase of raw materials for, of the distribution or sale of the products of the factory or establishment, *[or any person engaged as an apprentice, not being an apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961, or under the standing orders of the establishment; but does not include- (a) any member of the India....

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....ing employee for doing overtime work and paying the remuneration. In this behalf, it is relevant to note that the definition of "wages" under Section 2(22) of the Act, the main part of the definition, without taking aid of the inclusive part, would indicate that wages means all remuneration paid or payable in cash to an employee, if the terms of the contract of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled. It would, thus, be seen that if there is any contract of employment express or implied and the terms of contract have been fulfilled, then the remuneration paid for performance of the duty, the employer is obligated to pay remuneration as wages to the employee. Herein, we have to consider whether overtime wages would be part of the wages. It is settled legal position that the word `include' would be given wide interpretation so as to bring within its ambit exhaustively all entries akin to or analogous to the main part of wage, except to the extent the enumerated entities except those expressly excluded by the legislation would be within its sweep. In other words, by employing the inclusive definition, the Legislature intended to bring in, by legal fiction, something within ....

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....finition and reading the definition as a whole, the inclusive part is only illustrative and tends to express the wide meaning and import of the word `wages' used in the Act. It was held therein that HRA, Night, Shift Allowance, Heat, Gas and Dust allowance, incentive allowance are wages within the meaning of Section 2(22) of the Act. The facts in this case squarely fall within the above ratio laid by this Court. When the admitted position is that an employee has done the overtime work and received or is due to receive remuneration towards the work done for his rendering service, necessarily, it is a wage paid or payable by virtue of the implied contract. The contract of employment is entered into only at the initial entry into the service. In the course of the employment, as and when the employer finds the need to have work done expeditiously, in addition to the normal work during the course of the working hours, the employer offers to the employee to do overtime work after the working hours. When an employee does overtime work, it amounts to acceptance of the same. There emerges concluded implied contract between the employer and employee. There is no need to write on each occ....