The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld a Central Government notification by which contract labour system for retrieval of trolleys at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here has been abolished.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar passed the ruling on an appeal by the Indira Gandhi Airport TDI Karamchari Union challenging a Single Bench judgment which had quashed the notification.
Before the Single Bench, the Union had sought directions to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to forthwith take on duty workers previously engaged in trolley retrieval at the Delhi airport as permanent workers and to pay them wages accordingly and abolish the contract labour system for the work in terms of the notification issued by the Centre under Section 10 (1) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (CLRAA).
The Centre had also filed an appeal against the Single Bench judgment in support of the Union.
In 1992 around 136 workers were employed through a contractor for the work of trolley retrieval at the domestic and international airports in Delhi. In view of the perennial nature of the work, where they were employed on three shifts in a day, the workmen approached the Central Advisory Contract Labour Board (CACLB) for abolishing the contract labour system in trolley retrieval and for their absorption in AAI as regular employees.
On 20th July, 1999, the CACLB made a recommendation declining to abolish the contract labour system. The Union had then challenged the decision in the High Court.
The High Court in its judgment in 2003 quashed the recommendation and directed the CACLB to reconsider the matter.
The judgment further said that in case a recommendation was made for abolition of the contract system and an appropriate notification was issued by the Central Government, then in terms of the judgment of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Steel Authority of India Limited vs National Union Waterfront, the workmen would be entitled to preference/regular employment in accordance therewith and the breaks, if any, in their employment shall not come in their way.
The CACLB, which included representatives of both the employers and the employees, reheard the remanded case and unanimously recommended abolition of the contract labour system.
The CACLB concluded that the work of trolley retrieval was incidental to the main function of the AAI. It had to be continued on a day to day basis and therefore was of permanent and perennial nature with sufficient duration.
Accepting the recommendation, the Centre issued the notification.
The Bench also dismissed a petition by the Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) challenging an order passed by the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) declaring the Central Government to be the appropriate Government for the airport establishment of DIAL under the CLRAA as well as the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (ID Act).
The Bench set aside the Single Bench judgment and held that DIAL was equally bound by the notification prohibiting the employment of contract labour in the work of trolley retrieval at the Delhi airports.
As for the taking the workmen on duty, the Bench said: “It is apparent that there is already an industrial dispute raised in this regard. This issue is to be decided only by the industrial adjudicator. The outcome of that dispute will determine the ultimate reliefs that can be granted to the workmen’’.
The Bench also asked the respondents to pay Rs.10,000 each as costs within a period of four weeks to the appellants.
