Housekeeping workmen should be considered as employees: Karnataka HC
Bengaluru (PTI): The High Court of Karnataka has held that housekeeping jobs are perennial in nature and the workmen should be considered as employees.
It ordered the restoration of services of several housekeeping workmen of the state-owned Mysore Electrical Industries Limited (MEIL).
In the year 2000, Shankar Nursery and Associated Detective & Security Services which had a contract with the company to supply these workmen terminated their contract and withdrew 66 workmen from work.
The matter reached conciliation proceedings and then the Labour Court.
In 2001, the HC stayed the Labour Court order of restoring the services and sent the matter back to the lower court.
In 2011, the Labour Court once again ordered that the workmen be restored to service. This was challenged by the company in the High Court. The HC judgment by Justice Suraj Govindaraj came on February 23, 2023.
The company claimed that housekeeping staff involved in gardening, loading and unloading were contract labourers who did a few hours of work in a day.
The HC rejected this contention and said, "These job profiles being ones whose services are required on a day to day basis, as also for months on end. I am of the considered opinion that these jobs are perennial in nature and therefore would not be temporary as contended."
The Court dismissed the contention of the company that the housekeeping workmen were contract labourers and upheld the order of the Labour Tribunal.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj in his judgment said, "The Tribunal has come to a right conclusion that the alleged agreement between the employer and the contractor is a sham and camouflage and the workers have been engaged for a long period of time and the instrumentality of contract workers has been used only to deprive them of their just amounts."
Ordering the restoration of the services of the workmen, the HC in its judgment said, "The workmen belonging to respondent-Union shall be treated as employees of the petitioner. Petitioner shall regularise their services subject to availability of vacancies and in the event of there being no vacancies, as and when the vacancies arise, the petitioner shall give preference to the members of the respondent-Union, if they are found suitable by relaxing the condition as to maximum age, as also academic qualifications."
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Talks with Iran ended after 21 hours without reaching agreement, says US Vice President Vance
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Islamabad (PTI): US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that the Islamabad Talks with Iran failed as the two sides could not bridge the gulf of differences despite hectic efforts spreading more than 21 hours.
Vance addressed a press conference here after “substantive discussions” in direct talks between the two sides -- the first since 1979 at this level --mediated by Pakistan.
“We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we have had a number of substantive discussions, that’s the good news,” Vance said.
“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement,” he added.
“We have made very clear what our red lines are, what things we are willing to accommodate them on and what things we are not,” the US vice president said, adding that the Iranian delegation had “chosen not to accept our terms”.
He was asked to elaborate the main sticking points of what did the Iranians reject but he refused to go into specifics.
“I won’t go into all the details because I don’t want to negotiate in public after we negotiated for 21 hours in private. But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and that they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said
He said stopping Iran from getting a "nuke" was the “core goal of the US president, and that’s what we have tried to achieve through these negotiations”.
Vance also praised Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, terming them “incredible hosts”.
“Whatever shortcomings were in the negotiations were not because of Pakistanis, who did an amazing job and really tried to help us and the Iranians bridge the gap and get to a deal,” he said.
Separately, the spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baqaei, in an X message also confirmed that the two sides failed to make a deal and “numerous messages and texts have been exchanged between the two sides".
“In the past 24 hours, discussions were held on various dimensions of the main negotiation topics, including the Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear issue, war reparations, lifting of sanctions, and the complete end to the war against Iran and in the region,” he wrote.
“The success of this diplomatic process depends on the seriousness and good faith of the opposing side, refraining from excessive demands and unlawful requests, and the acceptance of Iran’s legitimate rights and interests.”
Baqaei also expressed appreciation to the “government and the warm-hearted and noble people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for hosting the negotiations and their benevolent efforts in advancing this process”.
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