Food Corporation of India v. Gen. Secy., FCI India Employees Union
Background
Around 955 workers at the Food Corporation of India's (FCI) Chennai branch office, who had been engaged through a contract labourers' society, claimed they were in substance FCI's own employees and sought regularization of their jobs within the FCI. The FCI argued these workers belonged to the contract society, not to FCI itself, and had no claim to regularization against it. The dispute was referred to the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, which ruled in the workers' favour; the FCI's subsequent writ petition and intra-court appeal before the Madras High Court were both dismissed, leading the FCI to approach the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that the Industrial Tribunal had correctly found, based on unrebutted evidence, that the contract labour arrangement had lapsed since 1991, that the workers were paid directly by FCI, that their work was of a permanent nature within FCI's operations, and that FCI had failed to produce any evidence to counter the workers' case, which justified an adverse inference against FCI. Since these were concurrent findings of fact by the Tribunal, the Single Judge, and the Division Bench, none of which suffered from perversity or illegality, the Supreme Court held it was bound to respect them and found no merit in FCI's appeal. The Court accordingly dismissed FCI's appeal and upheld the regularization of the 955 workers.
Lesson Learnt
An employer that fails to present evidence to rebut a workers' claim before an industrial tribunal cannot expect appellate courts to overturn consistent factual findings against it later; and long-term workers performing permanent-nature duties and paid directly by an organisation can be recognized as its employees even if initially engaged through a contractor, once the contractual arrangement has lapsed.