Call your boss a chor, lose your job

Shibu Thomas / TNN / Oct 15, 2006, 00:51 IST

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The Bombay HC has said that calling the employer a thief is serious abuse by an employee and cannot be treated lightly.

<arttitle>Call your boss a <i>chor</i>, lose your job</arttitle>

MUMBAI: Calling your boss a'chor' (thief) can mean the pink slip, the Bombay HC has ruled. Hurling abuses at employer is a strict'no-no' at one's place of work, ruled a division bench comprising Justice R M Lodha and Justice S A Bobde, while upholding the dismissal of an ex-employee of a group that owns men's fashion store Kachins at Tardeo.
Kachins, in its heyday, was popular with top-league Bollywood stars, such as Amitabh Bachchan and many industrialists.
"Calling the employer a thief or'chor' is serious abuse by an employee and cannot be treated lightly,"said the judges while dismissing the petition of employee Sahil Khan.
The division bench thus, overruled a 1985 order by a single judge, which had stated that such abusive slogans should not be taken literally and that both industry and society at large had become familiar with them because of their widespread use that they carried no misconceptions about such terms.

The Bench said that this was not the correct position in law."If an employee calls an employer by name and hurls abuses such as the employer is a'chor' or thief, how can an inference be drawn that the employee never meant that and that such abuses are used figuratively to suggest that (what's) due to the workman has been withheld by the employer?"said the judges.
The case dates back to February 3, 1992, when Khan along with six other employees of M/s Hashmat and Company held a demonstration outside Kachins at working hours, shouted slogans and prevented customers from entering or leaving the shop.

An inquiry report said Khan had led the employees in shouting slogans like'chor' and abuses that could not even be printed. Khan was found guilty of riotous, disorderly and his behaviour that had an adverse effect on the business activity of Kachins.
Khan challenged his dismissal in the industrial court but was unsuccessful. The HC remained unconvinced and remarked that it cannot be said by any stretch of imagination that the punishment of dismissal is grossly disproportionate to the charges proved.

About the Author

Shibu Thomas

Shibu Thomas is a special correspondent at The Times of India in Mumbai. He writes on legal issues in the Bombay high Court and other courts in the city. He has written on PILs filed by citizens, human rights violations and prisoners caught in the legal system. He has travelled across two continents and plans to cover the remaining five.

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