Summary
Contract workers who had received the applicable notified and agreed wages could not obtain regular SAIL employees’ negotiated wage scales through summary proceedings under Section 20 of the Minimum Wages Act. That jurisdiction did not extend to adjudicating equal pay for equal work. Continued engagement after the contract-labour prohibition did not establish automatic direct employment or wage parity; the workers had not discharged their initial burden of proving comparable duties.
Issues
- Whether Section 20 proceedings could determine parity with regular employees’ negotiated wage scales when applicable minimum and agreed wages were paid.
- Whether continuation after the contract-labour prohibition or the licensing rules established the claimed wage entitlement.
Provisions considered
- Section 20(1), Minimum Wages Act, 1948The authority’s summary jurisdiction concerned compliance with applicable minimum wage rates and did not encompass adjudication of an equal-pay claim to regular employees’ scales. (¶ 30–35)
- Rule 25(2)(iv) and (v), Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules, 1971These licensing conditions did not establish the claimed parity after the prohibition notification on this record; the applicable agreed wages had already been paid and comparable duties were not proved. (¶ 36–43)
Held
- The workers were paid ₹11.65 daily above notified minimum wages under their tripartite settlement. Protection of higher existing rates in the wage notification did not import regular employees’ NJCS wage agreement into their employment. (¶¶ 22–30, 32, 41–43)
- The initial burden to plead and establish same or similar duties rested on the workers. It could not be shifted to SAIL without discharge of that burden. (¶¶ 30, 43)
- Section 20 safeguards applicable minimum wage rates; the equal-pay issue required the competent adjudicatory mechanism rather than this summary enquiry. (¶ 33–35)
- The industrial adjudicator had separately rejected direct-employment and negotiated wage-parity claims, and those findings were upheld in the connected proceedings. (¶ 44–45)
Result
SAIL’s Civil Appeal 8094/2011 allowed; the wage authority’s order dated 2 December 2003 and the High Court judgment set aside. Workers’ Civil Appeal 8334/2011 dismissed. No costs; pending applications disposed of.