Supreme Court directs government to provide pensionary benefits to employees of Regional Rural Banks
27 April 2018: The Supreme Court has ordered that the Government of India provide pension benefits to the employees of Regional Rural Banks. The Apex Court has also ordered that pensionary dues of retired employees be paid within the next three months.
The judgement will benefit around 80,000 workers employed by 56 regional rural banks across the country.
Jammu & Kashmir High Court upholds Industrial Tribunal’s order regularising J&K Bank staff
22 April 2018: The Jammu & Kashmir High Court upheld the order of Central Industrial Tribunal regarding regularisation of temporary staff employed by Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd since year 2000.
The High Court rejected the argument of Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd that the central industrial tribunal had no jurisdiction to decide on regularisation of its temporary workers.
The temporary workers had raised a dispute under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 at the Industrial Tribunal after their plea for regularisation was rejected by the bank management. At the Tribunal bank management had argued that these workers were not workmen and hence not covered by the ID Act.
Kerala High Court clears notification of Minimum Wages for Nurses
4 April 2018: Presiding over the matter of notification of minimum wages for private hospital nurses and nursing support staff, Justice P.B. Sureshkumar has ordered the government to go ahead with the publication of notification which would raise the salary of nurses employed in private hospitals to Rs.20000 per month, bringing it at par with their peers employed in government hospitals.
The management of more than 400 private hospitals had come together to file a case against the Minimum Wage Notification issued by the Kerala Government which would lead to a 150% hike in the wages of nurses and nursing support staff employed at private hospitals, calling it arbitrary and illegal.
The court had earlier restrained the government from issuing the final notification, following which nurses and nursing staff across Kerala had gone on an indefinite strike.
Supreme Court orders state governments to make interim payment of Rs.127 crores due to tea garden workers
5 April 2018: The Supreme Court has directed the Central Government to proceed against defaulting tea companies by calling the statutory authorities to issue notices to the companies, for recovery and payment of wages to the workmen, who lost their source of income due to closure of tea estates in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala & Tamil Nadu.
A writ petition was filed by the International Union of Food & Agricultural Workers. Explaining the plight of the workers, the petition said that 240 workers died of starvation between March 2002 and February 2003.
Centre had set up a committee on plantation labour in 2003 which had found out that 4819 registered plantations had not paid dues to their workers. The dues of the workmen amounted to Rs. 249 crores in Assam, Rs. 27 crores in Kerala, Rs. 70 crores in Tamil Nadu and Rs. 30 crores in West Bengal.
In response to the contempt petition filed by the IUF together with the affiliated Estates’ Staff Union of South India (ESUSI) and other unions, the Supreme Court of India ordered the governments of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to make interim payment of wage and benefit arrears to the tea workers within 60 days.
