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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HMPV: No need to worry as virus is not dangerous, take precautions, says CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Jan 7: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) of which two cases have been detected in the state is not dangerous, but it is good to take precautions.
He told people there is no need to worry, but appealed to them to be cautious.
"We discussed HMPV (at health department meeting). It is not a very worrying virus. It is not the one that is prevalent in China. The virus that has been detected is an existing one. It infects children, aged people and those with less immunity," Siddaramaiah said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, "The virus is not dangerous. I have spoken to several doctors and experts, but it is good to take precautions."
"I appeal to people, there is no need to worry. But be cautious and take precautions. Health department has advised dos and don'ts, follow them," he added.
The Indian Council of Medical Research has detected two cases of HMPV in Karnataka through routine surveillance for multiple respiratory viral pathogens, the Union health ministry said on Monday.
A three-month-old female infant with a history of bronchopneumonia was diagnosed with HMPV after being admitted to Baptist Hospital in Bengaluru. She has already been discharged, the ministry said.
An eight-month-old male infant with a history of bronchopneumonia tested positive for HMPV on January 3 after being admitted to Baptist Hospital. He is now recovering, it said.
Neither of the patients had any history of international travel.
To a question about Home Minister G Parameshwara calling a dinner meeting of Congress leaders, ministers and lawmakers from SC/ST communities on January 8, and then postponing it following instruction from the AICC general secretary, the CM said, "I don't know about him calling a meeting and then cancelling it. I will talk to him."
