IMPORTANT POINT
The transfer of Direct Payment System workers is lawful under the provisions of the Contract Labour Act, ensuring minimum wages and service benefits are maintained.

ORDER:

1. The facts, as projected in the Writ Affidavit, in brief, are;

a. Petitioner is Food Corporation of India Workers’ Union, which is a registered Trade Union filed the W.P. on behalf of 751 ‘Direct Payment System’[In short, DPS] workers engaged in the Respondent No.1 for handling foodgrains in their depots. Respondent No.3 entrusted the Respondent No.1 with a duty to procure food grains and carry out its movement and distribution throughout the country by loading and unloading, through skilled labour. Pursuant to the long-standing demand for absorption and permanence, a settlement was arrived between the Petitioner Union and the Respondent No.1 management, vide the Memorandum of Settlement dated 01.11.1994.

b. A circular dated 05.12.1994 was issued by the Respondent No.1 to recognize the rights of the handling labourers, commonly identified as DPS. These labourers are posted in various depots/godowns of respondent No.1 and at various railway sidings for the purpose of unloading food grain stock and stacking them at the siding godown before dispatch.

c. Thereafter, Respondent No.1 issued a circular dated 22.07.1996 to the Zonal Manager with certain conditions to improve the labour relations in the institution. One of the conditions involved therein, claimed to have been implemented/proposed to be implemented was to transfer the surplus labourers from the DPS pool to another depot having shortfall to balance the situation.

d. Vide the circular dated 05.11.1997 to the South Zonal Manager, the Respondent No.1 placed on record the service conditions of the labourers engaged under DPS system and No Work-No Pay basis. Under these conditions, no enablement is given to the Respondent No.1 to transfer the DPS system labourers without reason and cause.

e. The DPS workers are deprived of the salary, leave etc., which are given to the departmental labour engaged by the respondent No.1, even when they discharge the similar work. In addition to the minimum wages as declared by the Central Government, the DPS workers are additionally paid certain incentive wages on piece rate depending on the number of bags that are loaded/unloaded/handled after a particular cut off mark. Basis of the piece-rate payment is notified and revised by the respondent No.1 from time to time. Without this additional earning, the DPS workers would not be able to make a decent living. The departmental workers have always been segregated in the posting matters so as to not create conflict with the additional earning being paid to the DPS workers.

f. To ventilate the grievance of differential treatment, a number of writ petitions were filed. Hon’ble Apex Court, vide order dated 08.07.2003 granted liberty to the workmen to approach the National Industrial Tribunal. During the pendency of the matter before the Tribunal, vide an order dated 27.05.2004 an interim relief in the tune of additional payment of Rs.50/- per day was granted in addition to the existing rate. The matters are still pending.

g. The Nagpur Bench of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court suo moto took up a Public Interest Litigation[In short, PIL] concerning large scale payments made to the departmental workers of the Respondent No.1. Vide order dated 20.11.2015, the High Court made certain observations on the payments to such workers. In the S.L.P. filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, vide an order dated 31.07.2017, it was made clear that any order passed pursuant to the directions from the High Court’s order dated 20.11.2015 could be challenged in appropriate proceedings before appropriate court and the adjudication thereupon has to be made uninfluenced by the observations in the High Court’s order.

h. The respondent No.1 by circular dated 12.07.2016 issued internal guideline for “implementation of exemption notification dated 06.07.2016 under Section 31 of the Contract Labour (R&B) Act, 1970”, purportedly to comply with the directions issued by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, vide order dated 20.11.2015.

i. The