TMI Blog1967 (8) TMI 116X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat it is quite prepared, if it was not already doing so, to apply and observe the provisions of the Motor Transport Workers Act in respect of its employees proper where such provisions can be made applicable. In view of this declaration we see no reason to interfere, because Parliament has not chosen to say that transport trucks will be run only through paid employees and not independent operators. The appeal fails - C.A. 437 OF 1966 - - - Dated:- 22-8-1967 - M. HIDAYATULLAH AND VISHISHTHA BHARGAVA, JJ. For the Appellant : H. K. Sowani, K. Rajendra Chaudhuri and K. R. Chaudhuri For the respondent : H. R. Gokhale, N. Shroff JUDGMENT The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Hidayatullah, J. This is an appeal by special leave against the award dated March 31, 1964 of the Industrial Tribunal, Maharashtra in a Reference by Government under s. 10(1)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The appellant is a Trade Union established on January 1, 1962 by the employees of Ghatge Patil (Transports) Private Ltd. and the respondent is the Company. The Company has its registered office at Kolhapur and is engaged in the transport and removal of goods by road. It operate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rators were responsible for any damage to the vehicle, save normal wear and tear, and were required to observe the terms and conditions of the permit held by the Company. In this way, the Company continued to function as a transport undertaking while the trucks were not run through paid servants but through independent contractors. The above move by the Company was necessary (so the Company admits) because of the passing of the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, on May 20, 1961. This Act was passed to provide for the welfare of Motor Transport workers and to regulate the conditions of their work. It applies to Motor Transport Undertakings, by which is meant, among other things, undertakings engaged in carrying goods by road for hire or reward. Such undertakings are required to register under the Act and an inspecting staff is brought into existence for the purpose of seeing that the requirements of the Act are carried out. The fourth chapter of the Act (headed "Welfare and Health") requires the Motor Transport Undertakings to provide canteens in every place where 100 Motor Transport workers or more are employed-, rest rooms for the use of such workers, uniforms, medical and First ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ours of work or of rest which were the main objects of the Act to secure. "The matter of dispute referred to the Tribunal was:-- "The contract system for the running of vehicles which has been newly introduced, must be abolished immediately. Such ex-employees of the Company who have been given this work on contract basis should be reinstated with back wages". The Tribunal held that the first part as also the second referred to the 54 drivers who had resigned their jobs and become operators. The Tribunal saw difficulty in acting on the second part because the drivers had resigned. In dealing with this problem the Tribunal considered the evidence and came to the conclusion that the drivers were not coerced or forced to take this action. The Tribunal then posed the question, how to re-instate persons who had voluntarily resigned their services and could not be said to be dismissed, discharged or retrenched within the Industrial Disputes Act? The Tribunal also held that the agreements were simple agreements for transport of goods and were essentially fair to the operators. Of course, there were advantages as well as disadvantages but the employees not being servants were free age ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ying goods by road for hire or reward. Since the drivers have resigned their jobs they cannot be said to be employed in the Motor Transport Undertaking. The word "employed" in the definition of Motor Transport worker is not used in the sense of using the services of a person but rather in the sense of keeping a person in one s service. The definition is, of course, made wide to take in all persons working in a professional capacity in an undertaking for running its affairs in any capacity and not only persons employed on wages. The word "wage" has the meaning given to the word in the Payment of Wages Act and takes in all paid employees and also persons who are employed in a professional. Capacity although not in receipt of wages. Persons who are independent and hire a vehicle for their own operation paying a fixed hire per mile from their earnings cannot be said to be persons employed in the Motor Transport Undertaking in the sense of persons kept in service. The operators, therefore, are not Motor Transport workers within the definition. The Act is not only intended to confer benefits on Motor Transport workers but is also regulatory with penal consequences. The apprehension o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... bservance of laws and to deny to labour the advantages it had acquired by bargaining or as a result of awards. Such is hardly the case here. The two systems were there for the drivers to choose. It is reasonable to think that the drivers must have chosen a system which was considered by them to be more beneficial to themselves. There was no compulsion for the drivers to resign their jobs and they did so voluntarily obviously thinking that the new system was more profitable to them. We cannot lose sight of the fact that some of the office-bearers of the Union were among the first to resign. Many of the drivers resigned the jobs and entered into agreements even after the dispute was taken up by the Union. The present case is, therefore, not analogous to the case of contract labour where employment of labour through a contractor or middleman put the labour at a disadvantage in collective bargaining and thus robbed labour of an important weapon in its armoury. The matter of dispute no doubt referred in the second part to ex-drivers but it referred generally to the new system in the first. The Tribunal was wrong in thinking that the first part also referred to the ex-drivers (now oper ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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