The management's failure to substantiate claims of dues against the workman rendered the recovery order without basis, upholding the worker's right to gratuity and statutory dues under the Voluntary Separation Scheme.

JUDGMENT :

B.R. SARANGI, ACJ.

1. The petitioner-management, by means of this writ petition, seeks to quash the award dated 10.02.2015 passed in Industrial Dispute Case No.11 of 2007 under Annexure-3, by which the learned Presiding Officer, Industrial Tribunal, Rourkela held that the action of the petitioner-management in retiring the opposite party-workman under the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) with effect from 16.01.2004 and not paying him salary or the benefits of the said scheme till the date of institution of the proceeding, is not legal and justified and the workman is entitled to get the gratuity and other statutory dues as admissible on the date of retirement. Accordingly, the learned Presiding Officer, Industrial Tribunal directed the petitioner-management to pay the dues, except P.F. amount which the opposite party-workman had already received, with 7% interest from the date of entitlement till the date of payment, to be released in favour of the legal heir(s) of the deceased workman.

2. The factual matrix of the case, in brief, is that the opposite party workman was appointed as a conductor under the administrative control of Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC), Rourkela and retired availing the Voluntary Separation Scheme on 16.01.2004. The date of birth of the workman-opposite party was 10.04.1951, so his actual date of retirement was 10.04.2009.

2.1. The services of the employees of OSRTC are regulated by the OSRTC Employees (Classification, Recruitment and Condition of Service) Regulation, 1978 in which the normal age of retirement was fixed at 58 years. The State Government in order to reduce the manpower in the public sector undertakings and in order to avoid expenditure towards establishment, introduced Voluntary Retirement Scheme in 1998 and Voluntary Separation Scheme in 2002 respectively. Voluntary Separation Scheme was introduced by the Government in Public Enterprises Department, vide their resolution no.3160 dated 21.09.2001, which the OSRTC implemented in its establishment by circulating the scheme and inviting applications from their employees, vide letter no.29898 dated 22.12.2001. The scheme had clarified that the employee is entitled to get 21 days emoluments for each completed year of service with gratuity and all other statutory dues payable to the employees, as per rule of the undertaking. The C.M.D., O.S.R.T.C., being the competent authority, reserved the right of acceptance or rejection of the application within 30 days of submission of the application, and that the application cannot be withdrawn after its acceptance and communicated by the competent authority to the concerned employee. Accordingly, the opposite party-workman applied for retirement under the VSS during the year 2002 which was not accepted, as no sanction order was communicated to him within the period of 30 days. It was alleged that all of a sudden the workman was issued notice of retirement from his service by the order of the management dated 16.01.2004. As per the scheme, the payment of ex-gratia, gratuity, leave encashment and other statutory dues were to be paid to the employees within 60 days of acceptance of the application by the competent authority. All the payments were to be made at the time of voluntary separation of the service. But it was alleged that the opposite party- workman, who retired on 16.01.2004 from service, was not paid with any financial benefits as entitled to. Therefore, he approached the labour authorities by filing proper application and as a consequence thereof, conciliation proceeding started.

2.2. During conciliation proceeding, in reply to the stand taken by the S.T.E. union in favour of the workman, the management had intimate