JUDGMENT - (1) The question which arises for determination in these two applications, is whether compensation, payable to workers, who have been laid-off, under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, is "wages" within the meaning of the payment of Wages Act. The term "lay-off" is defined in clause (kkk) of section 2 of the Industrial Dispute Act as meaning the failure, refusal or inability of an employer on account of shortage of coal, power or raw materials or the accumulation of tocks or the breakdown of machinery or for any other reason to give employent to a workman whose name is borne on the muster rolls of his industrial establishment and wo has not been retrenched. To put it briefly, lay-off therefore means the failure, refusal or inability of an employer to give employment to his employee. There is an Explanation to this cause, which states:

"Every workman whose name is borne on the muster rolls of the industrial establishment and who presents himself for work at the establishment at the time appointed for the purpose during normal working hours on any day and is not given employment bythe employer within two hours of his so presenting himself shall be deemed to have been laid-off for that day within the meaning of this clause."

Section 25C of the Act provides that whenever a workman ,whose name is borne on the muster rolls of an industrial establishment and who has completed not less than one year of continuous service under an employer is laid-off, he shall be paid by the employer for all days during which he is so laid-off, except for such weekly holidays as may intervene, compensation which shall be equal to fifty per cent. of the total of the basic wages and dearness allowance that would have been payable to him had he not been so laid-off. Secton 25D imposes an obligation upon the employer to maintain a muster roll during the period of lay-off and to provide for the making of entries therein by workmen wo may present themselves for work at the establishment at the appointed time during normal working hours. Section 25E specifies cases and circumstances in which no compensation shall be payable to a worman, who has been laid-off. For instance, under clause (I), no compensation is payable, if the workman refuses to accept any alternative employment provided bythe employer. These provisions of the Act impose a liability on an employer to make certain payments to his employees, when he fails, refuses or is unable to provide work to them. The payments are referred to as "compensation"and not as "wages". The Legislature has drawn a distinction between wages and compensation. It was open to the Legislature to say that during the period of lay-off, a workman shall be paid wages calculated in the prescribed manner. But the Legislature has deliberately referred to the sum payable to a workman during the period of lay-off as compensation, thereby suggesting that the Legislature did not intend that it should be regarded as wages.

(2) Standing Order No. 17 of the Standing Orders settled by the Industrial Court under section 36(3) of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946, and which determines the relations between the petitioners and their employers, i.e., the second respondents, is as follows:

"Any operative played off under Order 16 shall not be considered as dismissed from service, but as temporarily unemployed, and shall not be entitled to wages during such unemployment except to the extent mentioned in Order 16. Whenever practicable a reasonable notice shall be given of resumption of normal work and all operatives played-off under Order 16, who present themselves for work, when the normal working is resumed, shall have prior right of reinstatement."

This Standing Order uses the term "played-off" instead of "laid-off". It gives a right to the employee to lay-off his workmen, that is to say, it relieves him from an obligation to provide work to them. It also relieves him from the liability to pay wages during t

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