The Madras High Court has made it clear that it had not adjudicated the merits of the demands made by the Railway Employees Co-operative Staff Union and directed the Labour officer-1 at Kuralagam to commence conciliation proceedings preferably in eight weeks.
Allowing a petition filed by Union Secretary, RC Cyril Thiyagaraj, Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said "if no consensus is arrived at during the talks, the officer should submit a report within four weeks."
"I make it clear that I have not adjudicated the merits of the demands raised by the petitioners Union nor the defenses raised by the management," the judge said.
The matter relates to a petition filed by the Union to quash the order passed by the Labour Commissioner in April last to the labour officer and consequently submit a failure report to government for referring the dispute for adjudication. The Union has challenged this.
Criticising the Labour Commissioner for preventing the Labour Officer from exercising her statutory duties, the judge said "but for his directive, the Labour Officer would have proceeded independently in the matter. The interdict issued by the Commissioner is as a result of misconception both on the legal and the factual positions."
Concurring with the submissions made on behalf of the Union Secretary, the judge said "as contended by Cyril, the Labour Officer had rightly understood the scope of the proceedings and proceeded to issue notice and fixed the date of conciliation as March 17 and April 24, 2015."
"The Labour Commissioner ought not to have put fetters on the exercise of jurisdiction by the Labour Officer who has a statutory duty which she is bound to exercise."
"Furthermore, the conciliation would terminate only after the failure report is received by the government, which has not occurred in the instant case and the attempt of the Labour Commissioner is to thwart the entire proceedings," the judge said.
