Continuous employment of daily rated laborers without regularization constitutes unfair labor practice, and they are entitled to regularization after 10 years of service, affirming the principles in Umadevi (3).

JUDGMENT :

M.S. RAMESH, J.

Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (hereinafter referred to as ‘JIPMER’) is a premier hospital in the Union Territory of Puducherry, which have been engaging daily rated labourers (DRLs) in their various Departments as under:-

DIETETICS DEPARTMENT for the duties of vegetable cutting, assisting in cooking, diet issue, distribution in ward/milk/fruit/diet tray collection and washing laundry, linen collection from ward/washing and drying the linen/dry cleaning/distribution of linen to ward.

LINEN SECTION for the duties of stitching the cloth and cutting pillow cover, bed sheet, face mask.

NURSING SECTION/WARD for the duties of patient shifting/patient care/sample collection/urine blood measuring/stretcher bearing/barber work/ward shifting/indent collection from central store, CSSD, laundry, pharmacy and stationary, ICU, OT, shifting of patient for CT Scan/MRI, X-ray from ward.

MEDICAL RECORD DEPARTMENT for the duties of registration of CCR/OP & IP case, medical record file/census collection/dead body put in and take out the dead body for postmortem.

OFFICE OF DEPARTMENTS for the duties of dispatching tapals to various departments, sections, unit and file movement to other departments/section/Administration block, SRB/Petty cash movement, refreshment work, table chairs and arrangements for departmental meeting/conference etc., dispatching the speed post to post office, dispatching the DD/Postal order in Bank, indent collection from stationary department/CSSD/Linen section/laundry.

ACADEMIC SECTION/EXAMINATION/COLLEGE OF NURSING for the duties of dispatching the tapal to various section, department, units and admin block, petty cash, SRB, file movement to various department, section, units, refreshment arrangement for meeting, exam paper collection, decoding work, packing of exam papers, question papers packing.

2. There are 72 categories of Group-D posts in the Institute. The Sixth Central Pay Commission recommended these Group-D posts to be upgraded into Group-C posts and recommended for revision of the recruitment rules. The recommendation also prohibited further recruitment to Group-D posts and the existing Group-D posts to be placed in Group-C pay band. The minimum qualification for appointment to this level will be either 10^th pass or ITI or equivalent. Recommendations were also made for multi skilling, with one employee performing jobs hitherto performed by different Group-D employees and placing them with a common designation. As per the subsequent D.O.P.T guidelines, 51 categories of posts were identified and redesignated as Multi-tasking Staff. Among the displaced DRLs, several of them who possess the required qualification were absorbed in the Group-C posts. The unsuccessful DRLs, who were either not absorbed in Group-C posts or claimed to have been working for several years as DRLs, raised disputes before the Assistant Labour Commissioner (Conciliation) Puducherry, from the year 2012 onwards. On the failure of the conciliation proceedings, the Central Government, Ministry of Labour & Employment, through its order dated 03.01.2014, referred the Industrial Dispute to the Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Chennai (hereinafter called as ‘CGIT’), for adjudication. The point of reference therein reads as follows