Judgment

HIDAYATULLAH, J. :- The Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd, was granted on January 21, 1968 special leave to appeal against the award of the Third Industrial Tribunal, West Bengal, dated September 29, 1962. By that award the Tribunal set aside the dismissal from service of twelve workmen of the Company and ordered their reinstatement with continuity of service but awarded only 25 per cent of the back wages, etc., during the period they were out of employment treating the period as leave. This dispute was referred by the Government of West Bengal on July 20, 1960 under S. 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The workmen were dismissed after a domestic enquiry commenced on February 4, 1960 which was carried on ex parte because these workmen did not choose to be present. The Tribunal held that the enquiry was not proper and some of the witnesses were re-examined before the Tribunal whose verdict was against the Company and hence this appeal.

2. Eleven of these workmen belonged to what is known as the Dual Auto Mill and the twelfth was working on what is described as the Baby Mill. These workmen and several others stopped work from January 21, 1960 and they were placed under suspension on 25 / 27th January. Ten, other workmen were also dismissed but they were taken back on the intercession of the Government of Bengal. The incident arose in the following circumstances :

3. In the processing of rubber which is used in the manufacture of rubber goods by the Company, a number of departments have to work in sequence. The Bombury Section prepares a mixture of rubber and chemicals, and it is passed on to the Dual Auto Mill which, after further processing, turns out blocks of rubber called , "batches". Each batch is of about 1250 lbs. There were at the material time two Dual Auto Mills and they were working in three shifts and as each auto mill required the attendance of two workmen, twelve such workmen were employed to look after the two mills. Each shift was of 8 hours with half an hour s rest for meals and an extra 20 minutes for emergencies. It was expected to produce and was, in fact, producing 17 batches till January 12, 1960. There were another mill called the Baby Mill but what it was used for is not quite clear on the record of the case. One of the dismissed workmen (S.R. Sen Gupta - Check No. 252) was working on the Baby Mill and he was a protected worker.

4. The workmen in this Company are grouped under three Unions : the most numerous is Union No. 4145 which goes under the name of Dunlop Workers Union. This Union was registered but it was not recognised by the Company. Another, Union which bears No. 729 and goes under the name of Dunlop Rubber Factory Labour Union was recognised by the Company. We need not refer to the third Union which does not figure in these proceedings. It appears that Union No. 4145. which came into existence in 1957, managed to capture all the elective seats open to the workmen by defeating the candidates set up by Union No. 729. There was greate rivalry between the two Unions and the dismissed workmen belonged to Union No. 4145. It appears that Union No. 4145 had raised a demand for revision of wages etc., which was being resisted by the Company. The Baby Mill, the Bombay Mill and the Dual Auto Mills were manned by the workmen belonging to Union No.4145, except one Raghunandan Das, Check No, 100, who belonged to Union No. 729 and was teamed with Chandramma Chaube one of the dismissed workmen. Raghunandan Das was absent on leave from January 12 to January 19, 1960. From January 12, there was a fall in the output of the Dual Auto Mills at all the three shifts. The number of batches fell from 17 to 15 and later still further. On January 15, 1960 warnings were issued to these workmen that they were going slow and that "go slow" action was misconduct under cl. 10 (XVI) of the Company s Standing Orders for operators and under clause 18 (C) of the Labour Union Agreement for operators. They were told that if they