Skip to main content

Trade union can't include staff of separated firm


When one unit of a group of companies separates itself to form an independent firm, the trade union of the original group can not keep the employees of the new firm on its rolls. The bye-laws of the union can not be amended to allow erstwhile employees of the group to continue as members, even if they pay subscription fees, the Supreme Court stated in its judgment, All Escorts Employees’ Union vs State of Haryana. The Escorts group originally included Escorts Ltd, Escorts Yamaha Ltd (a joint venture), Escorts JCB Ltd, Escorts Class Ltd and Escorts Hospital. In 2001, the two-wheeler manufacturer Yamaha segregated and formed a separate company, which was an Indian subsidiary of the Japanese parent. Escorts stopped making twowheelers. The trade union tried to attract the erstwhile employees of the Yamaha unit by changing the bye-laws. The registrar of the trade union did not allow it. The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the registrar’s decision. The union came up on appeal to the Supreme Court arguing that its membership was open to any one who wanted to join it and every worker has a con stitutional right to do so. The court rejected the arguments of the union and stated that various provisions of the Trade Union Act implicitly con fined the membership to those who are work men of the industry where they are employed. More over, in this particular case, Yamaha employees have formed their own union which was registered in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. 

Comments

Most viewed this month

Appellate authorities under Special Statutes cannot be asked to condone delay

Madras High Court in R.Gowrishankar vs. The Commissioner of Service Tax has held that Appellate authorities cannot be asked to condone the delay, beyond the extended period of limitation A Division Bench comprising of Justices S. Manikumar and D. Krishnakumar, made this observation while considering an appeal filed against Single Bench order declining to set aside the order made in the condone delay petition filed by the petitioner to condone 223 days in filing the appeal before the Commissioner of Service Tax (Appeals). Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/appellate-authorities-special-statutes-cannot-asked-condone-delay-beyond-extended-period-limitation-madras-hc/

'Seize assets to pay damages to accident victim'

Her story might be an inspiration for the physically challenged but justice has remained elusive for her. In 2008, a bus accident left research engineer S Thenmozhi, 30, paraplegic. In April 2013, the motor accident claims tribunal directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to provide her a compensation of 57.9 lakh. However, TNSTC refused to budge and on Tuesday a city court ordered attaching of movable assets of the transport corporation. Thenmozhi was employed in C-DOT, a telecom technology development centre in Bangalore. On July 21, 2008, she was coming to Chennai in a private bus. Around 2am, the bus had a flat tyre and the driver parked it on the left side of the road near Pallikonda in Vellore district on the Bangalore-Chennai highway. While the tyre was being changed, a TNSTC bus of Dharmapuri division hit the stationary bus. The rear part of the bus was smashed and passengers were injured. Thenmozhi who had a seat at the back of the bus suffered...

Mumbai ITAT rules income of offshore discretionary trust is subject to tax in India

The Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has recently determined the following issue in the affirmative in the case of Manoj Dhupelia: Should the income of an offshore discretionary trust be subject to tax in India, if no distributions have been made to beneficiaries in India? The question arose from appeals filed by individual beneficiaries in relation to a Lichtenstein-based trust, the Ambrunova Trust and Merlyn Management SA (the Trust) with the ITAT. It is important to note that the individuals in this case were amongst those first identified by the Government of India (GOI) as holding undeclared bank accounts in Lichtenstein. The ITAT ruling raises the following issues: Taxation of Trust Corpus: ITAT classified the corpus of the trust as "undisclosed income" and declared it taxable in the hands of the beneficiaries. Taxation of Undistributed Income: ITAT refused to draw a distinction between the corpus and undistributed income from the trust and declared i...