The Delhi High Court said 'equal pay for equal work' cannot be extended to casual workers as they do not possess the same qualifications as the regular employees.
Justice S Muralidhar allowed the petition of Air-India which asked for quashing of the CGIT order directing them to pay same wages to the casual workers at par with the regular ones and held, 'The principal of 'equal pay for equal work'
cannot be extended to workers appointed on casual-basis since they are not required to possess the same qualifications as prescribed for the regular ones. 'Just because the casually employed workers are performing the similar task as that of regular ones, cannot entitle them to claim the right to the 'equal pay for equal work',' the court said.
Setting aside the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT) order which granted relief of parity in pay scale to daily wage workmen, the court said the appointments of daily wage workers do not consider many factors of age, experience and qualifications at the time of recruitment and thus are not entitled to same benefits.
The court directions came on the plea of Air India Limited challenging the CGIT order which held that the workmen employed on a casual basis were entitled to the same wages as payable to regularly-appointed ones from the date of their initial appointment.
The CGIT had on a plea of Air India Workers Union, passed the order.
Citing various Supreme Court judgements, Justice Muralidhar said that the CGIT order cannot be sustained as the daily-wage workers are not required to possess the qualifications prescribed for regular workers, nor do they have to fulfil the requirement relating to age at the time of recruitment.
The court held that a scale of pay was attached to a definite post and in case of a daily wager, he held no posts. They are not selected in the manner in which regular employees are selected.
Courtesy: UNI
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