ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has held that the services of a workman cannot be terminated nor can a workman be removed from service, discharged, dismissed or terminated except by a written order explicitly stating the reason for the action taken.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazahar, while upholding the order of the Sindh High Court, observed that according to the classification of workmen provided in Order 1 of the 1968 Ordinance, a ‘permanent workman’ is a workman who has been engaged in work of a permanent nature likely to last for more than nine months and who has satisfactorily completed a probationary period of three months in the same or other occupation, in an industrial establishment or commercial, including interruptions due to illness, accident, leave, lockout, strike (not being a lockout or illegal strike) or involuntary closure of the establishment; and a “temporary worker” is a worker who has been engaged for work of an essentially temporary nature which is likely to be completed within a period not exceeding nine months.
“Whereas Article 12 of the 1968 Ordinance emphasizes that in the event of dismissal of a permanent worker, for any reason other than misconduct, one month’s notice must be given either by the employer or by the worker and one month’s salary calculated on the basis of the average salary earned by the worker during the last three months is paid in lieu of notice.
“Furthermore, no temporary worker, whether paid on a monthly, weekly, daily or piece rate basis, nor any trainee or badli, shall be entitled to any notice if his services are terminated by the employer, nor shall any such worker be required to give notice or pay wages in lieu to the employer if he quits his employment of his own volition,” Justice Muhammad Ali Mazahar said in his judgment.
The judgment notes that the procedure for dismissal is explained in section 13 of the Industrial and Commercial Employment Regulations, 1968, which states that where a workman is to be dismissed and he belongs to a particular category of workmen, the employer must dismiss the workman who is the last person employed in that category.
“In addition, article 14 of the Regulations relating to the re-employment of dismissed workers, contains the amendment that, when a certain number of workers are dismissed and the employer proposes to resume employment within a period of one year from the date of this dismissal, the employer must give the opportunity to the dismissed workers belonging to the category concerned, by sending a notice by registered mail to their last known address, to offer to
re-employment, and they will have preference over other people, each having priority according to the length of their service with the employer.
“The provision appended to the Rules provides that in the case of a seasonal factory within the meaning of section 4 of the Factories Act, 1934, a workman who has been dismissed in one season and who reports for work within ten days of resuming work in the factory in the immediately following season shall be accorded preference in employment by the employer.
“It is further provided that in the case of such a seasonal factory, the employer may, by sending a notice by registered mail to the last known address of a workman who has been dismissed during any season, require him to report on the day specified in the notice, not earlier than ten days before the resumption of work in such factory, and if such workman so appears, he will have preference for employment and will be paid his full wages from the day on which he reports.”
