AHMEDABAD: While most workers and employees fight hard in courts to secure promotions and higher employment status, an accounts supervisor Rajesh Gandhi decided to swim against the tide.
To establish himself as a
blue-collar worker, Gandhi fought a legal battle for 19 years. But he has ultimately failed to prove he was not in a white-collar job. All courts rejected his claim of being a
labourer in Blue Star Ltd in Bharuch because he was posted as a senior executive accounts and couldn’t be treated as a workman .
Gandhi joined the company in 1988 as assistant accounts officer; promoted in 1990 as accounts officer and in 1995 as senior executive accounts. Two persons were working under his supervision in this department. In 1990, he was sacked on charges of misappropriation. The company had then sued him for recovery of Rs 70 lakh.
Once out of job, Gandhi approached the labour court in Bharuch in 2001 raising industrial dispute that he could not have been fired as a labourer. In 2014, the labour court rejected his case solely on the ground that he did not fall within the ambit of the definition of a workman according to the Industrial Disputes Act.
Gandhi approached the HC, but a single-judge bench dismissed his petition in 2015. Last week, a division bench also dismissed his appeal. The court rejected his argument that his nature of duty was purely technical, and he did not have any control over company and workers. He had argued that without having any administrative or managerial nature of work, he should be considered a workman. He had submitted that he cannot be termed a supervisor merely on the basis of his high pay scale. The designation of a workman is immaterial, he submitted.For the company, advocate Kunan Naik argued that Gandhi was drawing a salary more than Rs 10,000, at the time he was sacked, when anybody drawing salary above Rs 1,600 was not treated as a labourer. There were two employees working under him for administrative work.
After hearing the case, the HC said that Gandhi would not fall under the definition of a workman because of his designation, his supervisory work with two subordinates, as well as the amount of salary he used to draw.
Advocate Naik said, “Lately, people have realized that reinstatement is easy, if they claim to be a labourer. While in job, they approach courts for higher employment status, but when terminated, they claim workman status because it fetches them more money.”
Picture for representational purpose only.
