JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha, J. - Leave granted.

2. Appellant herein is a nationalised Bank. Some scheduled banks initiated a scheme commonly known as Daily Deposit Scheme. There were, however, various nomenclatures given therefor, as for example, Mini Deposit Scheme, Pygmy Deposit Scheme etc. The said schemes were introduced for mobilizing small savings from public. For the said purpose, services of deposit collectors were taken to canvass opening of accounts, to collect deposits from the account holders at their residence/business premises, and to deposit collections in the banks on a daily basis.

3. New Bank of India, which has since merged with Appellant, had such a scheme. Respondents herein were deposit collectors in Pygmy Deposit Scheme floated by the said Bank. Under the agreement, they were entitled to commission at the rate of 3.5% of the collections made by them. Those Pygmy deposit collectors working in New Bank of India since 1979 had been allowed to continue with Appellant No. 1 upon their amalgamation in 1993. The system of paying commission at the rate of 3.5% of the amount collected by them continued.

4. An industrial dispute was raised by such deposit collectors of various ba