1953 (10) TMI 39

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....were recorded: "[1] it was agreed that the total number of workers required for the efficient working of the nagercoil electric supply corporation be decided by the chief engineer [electricity]. The number of people required in the various sections of the corporation will also be decided by the chief engineer [electricity]. [2] actual retrenchment if it is ultimately found to be necessary will be effected by the management in consultation with the labour commissioner, Or assistant labour commissioner. [3] till retrenchment if found necessary is given effect to, The 14 workers retrenched as well as 14 workers dismissed will be paid their wages by the employer from the date of their retrenchment or dismissal as the case may be. The arrears will be paid on or before 12th june 1951. [4] the union agrees to call off the strike, Satyagraha and other demonstrations started by them in this connection". 16 - 6 - 1951 : report of the chief engineer (electricity) the relevant portion of which reads as follows: "the work connected with the electric supply in nagercoil comprises of operation of the power - house for about 3 hours daily, Maintenance of the distribution system, ....

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....s paid a portion of the arrears of wages to the workers. The management will pay to the twenty - eight workers the wages remaining unpaid and continue to pay it till retrenchment if found necessary is given effect to" . [paragraph 8]. 3. The judgment under appeal is apparently based on the assumption that the tribunal was made two mistakes: (a) misunderstood the scope of issue no. 3 as being the same as that of resolution no. 3; and (b) considered the question as to whether any reduction in personnel was necessary as still open in spite of the report of the chief engineer (electricity) to the effect that the strength at the time of the report was adequate and sufficient. we cannot agree. All that the tribunal has done is to take the view - which it was entitled to take - that until it came to the conclusion that the twenty - eight workmen discharged by the employer were the workmen to be actually retrenched in pursuance of the report of the chief engineer (electricity) and according to the canons of industrial law based on the length of service and other such relevant considerations, The question as to whether all or any of the twenty - eight workmen was to be retren....

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.... [viii] any other matter which may be prescribed". 7. The only other argument, Apart from those indicated above, Which was advanced before us was that the period of a week specified for the payment of arrears in the concluding paragraph of the award which is extracted below violates the provisions of section 17a of the industrial disputes act, 1947, And that the violation vitiates the whole award and makes it inoperative: "in the result i pass this interim award ordering the management to pay the arrears within a week from the date of publication of the award in the gazette, As specified above and this will be effect till final award is passed. I submit this award to government under section 15 of the industrial disputes act [central act xiv] of 1947" the argument is summarised as follows in the judgment under appeal: "it is also contended that viewed as an award under section 15 of the act, As the interim award purports to fix a period of a week from the date of its publication for its coming into force, It violates the provisions of the act as regards the coming into operation of awards under section 15, As under section 17a, And award shall become enforceable on....

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....sputes order, 1951, Which reads: "where an award on a dispute or issue has been made by the tribunal then as from the date of the award or from such other date, Not being earlier than the date on which the dispute or issue to which the award relates first arose, As the tribunal may direct, It shall be an implied term of the contract between the employer and workers to whom the award applies that the terms and conditions of employment to be observed under the contract shall be in accordance with the award until varied by agreement between the parties or by a subsequent award of the tribunal an award was passed increasing wages as from the 23rd november 1951, A date anterior to the date on which the dispute arose. Lord goddard, C. J., Said that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to make such an award and: "the earliest date from which they could have awarded the increased rate of wages would have been from the date when the dispute arose. It was for the tribunal, No doubt, To determine that date and to have awarded from that date and the should have so awarded. In these circumstances, As we cannot amend it, The award is bad, And an order of certiorari must go and it must be....