Individual settlements can’t bind all workers: Madras HC

Chennai: In industrial disputes, individual settlements cannot automatically bind all workers. The ‘majority cannot be determined based only on remaining employees during litigation, Madras high court said. The court added that settlements were not the result of collective bargaining, but individual agreements.Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy made the observations while upholding the wage settlement award passed by the Industrial Tribunal, Chennai, for workers of Manali Petrochemicals Ltd.The issue pertains to petitions moved by management of Manali Petrochemicals Ltd. SPIC Organics Ltd is the majority stakeholder in Manali Petrochemicals. It took over another company, UB Petroproducts Ltd, a major competitor of Manali Petrochemicals established in 1997. In 2000, SPIC was merged with Manali Petrochemicals through a court order.In 2002, the company proposed to alter the service conditions of these workmen, including reducing retirement age from 60 to 58, reducing casual leave from 10 to seven days, sick leave from 15 to seven days, and ordinary leave from 24 to 22 days.On Jan 3, 2003, the employees union objected to the change in service conditions, and on Dec 18, 2003, a dispute was raised. Similarly, the trade unions submitted a charter of demands, including a pay revision, on March 19, 2003. On Jan 7, 2004, the conciliation regarding the dispute failed, and the conciliation officer forwarded the failure report to the govt.The Industrial Disputes Tribunal suggested some modifications to the casual leave and other leaves but rejected the reduction of retirement age and modifications to the pension scheme. Aggrieved, the company moved HC.Refusing to interfere in the findings of the tribunal, the court dismissed the pleas.