JUDGMENT :

Oral Judgment:

1. This group of petitions challenges four sets of identical awards passed by Labour Courts at Pune on references made to them under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. By the impugned awards, the references, made at the instance of workmen of the Respondent, were answered in the negative by the courts. The second party workmen, who are Petitioners herein, challenge the awards on various grounds.

2. A brief history of the matter, as culled out from the petitions, may be noted as follows :

2A. The Respondent company is one of the leading manufacturers of two and three wheelers in India, having factories at Akurdi and Chakan in Pune and at Waluj in Aurangabad. The present dispute concerns its workmen employed at Akurdi.

2B. Between 1984 and 1997, besides its permanent workmen, the Respondent employed various temporary workmen, their number varying from year to year. (In the years before 1984, the Respondent used to appoint workmen on probation, terminate them later and re-appoint them once again on probation; in due course of time many of these appointees were made permanent.) In 1997, the Respondent had about 6088 permanent workmen and about 4313 temporary workme