The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed the decision of the managements to freeze the dearness allowance (DA) for the workmen of the public sector undertakings — Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).
Justice R. Devadas passed the interim order on the petitions filed by BEL Workers’ Union and the Hindustan Aeronautics Employees’ Association challenging the office memorandum issued by the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Sector Enterprises on November 19, and the circulars issued by the BEL and the HAL managements for freezing the DA for workmen.
Earlier, the High Court was informed by the counsel for the employees’ unions that the Union government, in a similar proceedings before the Kerala High Court, had made it clear that its office memorandum of freezing DA applies only to the the executives and non-unionised supervisors of Central public sector enterprises and it is not applicable to non-executives.
Following, this the court said that circulars issued by the respective managements of HAL and BEL are not applicable to the workmen and directed the managements to ensure payment of DA with effect from October 1, 2020 as per the agreement with the employees’ unions.
