These figures have been given by us in the earlier 189 part of our judgment and we need not repeat the same. The statements also showed what extra burden was imposed upon the newspaper establishments, if they wanted to discharge the working journalists from their employ which burden was all the greater, if per chance, the newspaper establishments, even though reluctantly came to a decision that it was worth their while to close down their business rather than continue the same with all these financial burdens imposed upon them.
Limitation (4) formulated by learned counsel for the appellants is also too generally stated. The Act avowedly gives a restricted meaning to the word I workman’ and almost all the provisions of the Act are intended to confer benefits on that class of persons who generally answer to the description of workmen. , correctly put the crucial test when he said in Narendra Kumar Sen v. If and when the gap is completely bridged, I workmen will be synonymous with ’employees’, whether engaged in any skilled or unskilled manual, supervisory, technical or clerical work, etc.
We think that Chagla C. to retrenchment compensation, payment of gratuity, hours of work and leave sources (link webpage) as well as the decision of mouse click the up coming post Wage Board in regard to the fixing of rates of wages and the scales of wages would be such as would cripple the resources of the newspaper establishments, if not necessarily lead to their complete extinction. The financial burden which was imposed by the decision of the Wage Board was very vividly depicted in the statements furnished to us on behalf of the petitioners in the course of the hearing before us.
The gap has been reduced to some extent by the amendments of 1956; part of the supervisory staff (who draw wages not exceeding five hundred rupees per mensem) and those who were otherwise workmen but were discharged or dismissed earlier have also come within the definition. The expression ‘any person’ in the definition clause means, in our opinion, a person in whose employment, or non-employment, or terms of employment, or conditions of labour the workmen as a class have a direct or substantial interest-with whom they have, under the scheme of the Act, a community of interest.
There is no gainsaying that the identity of the mother is never in doubt nHowever, in both these cases, it may still remain necessary to furnish a Birth Certificate. Our reason for so holding is not merely that the Act makes a distinction between workmen and non-workmen, but because a dispute to be a real dispute must be one in which the parties to the dispute have a direct or substantial interest. We recognise that solidarity of labour or general interest of tabour welfare may furnish, in some cases, the necessary nexus of direct or substantial interest in a dispute between employers and workmen, but the principle of solidarity of the labour movement or general welfare of labour must be based on or correlated to the principle of community of interest; the workmen can raise a dispute in respect of those persons only in the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions or labour of whom they have a direct or substantial interest.
but all employees were not workmen. But till the gap is completely obliterated, there is a distinction between workmen and non-workmen and that distinction has an important bearing on the question before us. These statements showed that the wage bill of these newspaper establishments was going to be considerably increased, that the retrospective operation of the decision was going to knock off a considerable sum from their reserves and that the burden imposed upon the newspaper establishments by the joint impact of the provisions of the Act in regard.
Can it be said that workmen as a class are directly or substantially interested in the employment, non- employment, terms of employment or conditions of lab our of persons who belong to the supervisory staff and are, under the provisions of the Act, non-workmen on whom the Act has conferred no benefit, who cannot by themselves be parties to an industrial dispute and for whose representation the Act makes no particular provision ?
The supervisory staff did not come within the definition. We venture to think that the answer must be in the negative. (3) as formulated by learned counsel for the appellants ignores the distinction altogether and equates ‘any person’ with any employee’-past, 1173 present or future: this we do not think is quite correct or consistent with the other provisions of the Act. The law is dynamic and is expected to diligently keep pace with time and the legal conundrums and enigmas check it out presents.
The conclusion, however, is inescapable that the decision of the Wage Board imposed a very heavy financial burden on the newspaper establishments, which burden was augmented by the classification on the basis of gross-revenue, fixation of scales of wages, provisions as, regards the hours of work and leave, grouping of newspapers into chains or multiple units and retrospective operation given to the decision of the Wage Board as therein mentioned.