Karnataka: HC slams Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for employing workers under sham and bogus contracts
8 January 2018: The Karnataka High Court has ordered the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to regularise 15 contract workers with full benefits. The HC found that the workmen were employed in work of perennial nature and that HAL was using sham and bogus contracts to deny the workers’ wages and benefits at par with permanent workmen. These 15 workers had been in continuous service of HAL since 1974 during which time they were hired through different contracting agencies to avoid the law.
Kerala: Contract workers are entitled to maternity benefits
2 January 2019: The Kerala High Court has ruled that contract workers are entitled to maternity benefits and cannot be discriminated against merely on the basis of their employment status.
The court was hearing a petition of an assistant professor, employed on an annual contract at the School of Health Sciences, Calicut University, since 2008. The University had denied her maternity rights claiming that this was not part of her contract. According to her contract, she could only claim 15 days of casual leave during the 1 year period of employment.
The court ruled that maternity benefits are not merely benefits flowing out of an agreement and thus directed the University to grant maternity benefits to the petitioner as available under the Maternity Benefit Act.
