Case: Mgmt. Of Sundaram Industries Ltd Vs. Sundaram Industries Employee Union

The appellant-company is engaged in the manufacture of rubber products for various industrial applications. It had, at the relevant point of time, 877 employees in its establishment. As many as 488 of these employees were working as moulders to operate the rubber moulding machines. The moulding work involved placing rubber into the moulding press which would then be pressed into rubber components and marketed for varied industrial and commercial uses.4. In March 1999, the management of the appellant-company required the workmen engaged as moulders to place their individual bags of production on the weighing scale at the end of their work shift. That procedure was observed for about a week whereafter 13 out of 488 moulders declined to abide by the instructions issued by the management. The defaulting members of the work force were on that basis placed under suspension by the management. Aggrieved by the action taken against its members, the respondent-union raised a dispute before the Labour Officer who advised the union and its workmen to tender an apology to the management and an undertaking to the effect that they would not repeat their acts in future.5. Thecase is that despite the apology and undertaking furnished pursuant to the said advice, the defaulting workmen not only continued disobeying the instructions but succeeded in enticing three others to follow suit, thereby disrupting the work in the factory. The appellant took note of the disobedience shown by the workmen concerned and initiated disciplinary proceedings against them in April, 1999. Pending such proceedings the workmen concerned were placed under suspension on the charge of their having persistently refused to follow the instructions despite an apology and undertaking furnished by them earlier. The inquiry initiated against the workmen culminated in the dismissal of the delinquent workmen based on the charges of misconduct, persistent disobedience and insubordination proved against them. The respondent-union once again espoused the cause of the workmen and approached the Industrial Tribunal, Chennai in a reference made by the Government for adjudication of the dispute. The Tribunal came to the conclusion that although the domestic inquiry conducted by the management against the delinquent workmen was fair and proper and the charges stood proved, the punishment of dismissal imposed upon the workmen was shockingly disproportionate to the gravity of the offence. The Tribunal accordingly set aside the order of dismissal passed against the workmen and directed their reinstatement with 50% back wages.6. Aggrieved by the award made by the Tribunal, the appellant preferred Writ Petition No.8019 of 2010 before the High Court at Madras which was heard and dismissed by a learned Single Judge of that Court by his order dated 28th February, 2011. Writ Appeal No.702 of 2011 and M.P. No.1 of 2011 filed by the management also failed and were dismissed by a Division Bench of that Court. The present appeal assails the said orders as noticed above.

Reasoning: It is evident from the above that the discord between the workmen and the management arose entirely out of the management requiring the workmen to place the bag of their production on the electronic weighing scale instead of placing them on the floor at the end of the shift as they were doing till the management issued fresh instructions that demanded that the workmen carry their production bags to the electronic weighing scale for weighment. The workmen considered this additional responsibility to be involving not only additional work in carrying the production bag to the weighing machine but also in devoting additional time beyond the shift hours without any additional remuneration for theis thus evident that the refusal of the workmen to carry out the instructions issued by the management was not without a lawful or reasonable justification. The same could not at any rate be described as contumacious. The essence of the matter was whether the management could, without additional remuneration, ask the workmen who were responsible for attending to the production work alone to do additional work which was hitherto being done by another group of workmen, especially when compliance with the instructions to the workmen would require them to tie their production bags, carry them to the weighing machine, wait in the queue till the process was to be completed and leave only thereafter. In the course of hearing before us, it was fairly conceded by the representative of the appellant that since the number of moulders working in the establishment was fairly large and weighing machines limited in number, the workmen had to wait in a queue for their turn to have their production weighed which was earlier being done by some other workmen who were disbanded. Inasmuch as the workmen concerned had declined to undertake this additional responsibility which was not only consuming additional time but also additional effort they could not be accused of either deliberate defiance or misconduct that could be punished. The Tribunal was in that view wrong in holding that the charge framed against the respondents was proved. Refusal to carry out the instructions requiring workmen to do additional work beyond the shift hours was clearly tantamount to changing the conditions of service of the workmen which was impermissible without complying with the requirements of Section 9-A of the Industrial Disputesassuming that the finding regarding the commission of misconduct is left undisturbed, the circumstances in which the workmen are alleged to have disobeyed the instructions issued to them did not justify the extreme penalty of their dismissal. At any rate, the Labour Court having exercised its discretion in setting aside the dismissal order on the ground that the same was disproportionate, the High Court was justified in refusing to interfere with that order under Article 226 of the Constitution. There is in any event no compelling reason for us to invoke our extraordinary power under Article 136 of the Constitution or to interfere with what has been done by the two Courts below. But for the fact that there is no appeal or challenge to the denial of full back wages to the workmen, we may have even interfered to award the same to the