Person working in IT firm is a ‘workman,’ says court

Sets aside dismissal of a senior programmer and orders his reinstatement

Maintaining that a person working in an Information Technology company can be termed a “workman”, a court here on Tuesday set aside the dismissal of an employee stating that it was unlawful.

Additional Labour Court Presiding Officer S. Nambirajan also directed the firm to reinstate the petitioner with continuity of service and to pay full back wages and all other benefits from the date of dismissal to the date of reinstatement.

The order was given on an industrial dispute plea filed by K Ramesha, who was dismissed as Senior Service Programmer while working in HCL Technologies Limited, seeking to set aside his dismissal.

“It cannot be denied that the job of an engineer in a software company involves skills and technical knowledge. Therefore it can be concluded that the job of a software engineer can be termed as the skilled or technical one,” the court also said.

The management contented that Mr. Ramesha was a supervisor and therefore exempted from the definition of the term “workman”.

“Any person doing a skilled job is a workman under the definition of that term. So I conclude that the petitioner is a workman,” the judge said.

On January 22, 2013 the firm terminated his service on the ground that his performance was not satisfactory without explanation. .

“The firm has not produced any evidence to show that failure to improve performance would amount to an act of misconduct,” the court said. — PTI