Payment of Minimum Wages

Delhi Administration through Directorate of Social Welfare vs. Presiding Officer

Filed under: Section 47 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 Section 33C (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 Sections 17 & 26 of the Minimum Wages Act
Appellant: Delhi Administration through Directorate of Social Welfare
Respondents: Presiding Officer and Ors
Citation: (2004) I LLJ 910 Del
Court: In the High Court of Delhi
Judge: Mukul Mudgal

This is a writ petition challenging the order of the Labour Court under Section 33C (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act. Through its order, the Court had directed the management of the centre to pay minimum wages to the people working at the centre.

Facts

The Director of Social Welfare since 1076 has been managing a sheltered workshop. The Scheme provided for a training-cum-production centre for physically handicapped persons to enable long-term earning opportunities for them.

The centre admitted those disabled people whose production level was 60% less than workers without disabilities. The management got orders from the government for production of garments for which the cost of raw material and the charges for sewing were billed separately.

The centre received a grant in-aid from the government, and deducted the establishment charges and the welfare charges from the wages of the worker

The issue raised by this appeal was whether the centre in question was considered to be an industry within the meaning of Section 2(j) and whether the people working at the centre were workers under Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act?

Therefore should there be an employer-employee relationship between both the parties? The Labour Court stated that the centre was considered to be an industry and that it should not be taken out of its scope merely because it was run for the benefit of handicapped workers.

Observations of the Court

This Court referred to the tests laid down in a previous case decided by the Supreme Court and concluded that the activities undertaken by the centre (such as production of garments) under the Social Welfare Department makes it an industry.

Further, with regard to payment of minimum wages, the Court observed that once the establishment was held to be an industry, it was required to pay the stipulated minimum wages.

After referring to some of the relevant provisions of the Persons with Disabilities Act, it was observed that even if the quality and the quantity of the work were not questioned, there was no reason to deny them the dignity of labour by paying them less than the minimum wages on the grounds of disability.

Held

The case was referred back to the Labour Court to compute the minimum wages payable to the workers from 1983, when the first order was passed, till the appeal. A direction was passed to pay the amount to the workers or their legal heirs in case of deceased workers.

Sections Referred:

Cases Referred:

  • Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board vs. Rajappa and Ors, AIR 1978 SC 548, 1978 (2) SCC 213, 1978 - I - LLJ - 349