“Workman is defined under Section 2(s) of The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as any person (including an apprentice) employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work, for hire or reward, terms of employment be express or implied and includes any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched in connection with, or as a consequence of dispute. It excludes persons employed in army/Navy/Air Force/Police and those employed in mainly managerial or administrative, supervisory capacity and drawing wages of more than INR 6500.
Factors To Be Considered
- The existence of master-Servant Relationship.
- When the claimant is performing various functions, the main one for which he is employed should be considered.
- Work is manual, skilled, unskilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory in nature.
- Claimant does not fall into any of the exceptions.
Skilled or Unskilled Work
When some work requires a certain technique or certain training is required for doing that job then it is skilled labour.
Manual
A manual worker is a worker who applies physical effort in doing his task.
Supervisory Work
A supervisor is a person who sees or looks after the work of other employees or in other words supervises them.
He is not a worker when:
- He performs mainly managerial functions.
- He draws wages exceeding Rs. 10,000 a month.
Technical Work
An employee must possess the technical knowledge to be termed as a technical worker. Eg. draftsman, engineer, etc.
Clerical Work
He is a person who works in an office and performs routine tasks like keeping records, maintaining files, etc.
Hire or Reward
In order to fall under this definition, the claimant needs to prove that he was working in exchange for some hire or reward. Terms of employment can be expressed or implied.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be said that an employee is not a workman and is not included with the ambit of Industrial Dispute Act 1947, when,
- The person is not employed in an industry,
- His work is for hire or reward and is free of charge,
- He is not employed to do the type of work specified in the definition,
- There is no contractual relationship between master and servant. Such a relationship exist when the workman is under supervision, direction, and control of the master.
- A person employed in supervisory work and drawing wages in excess of Rs. 10’000/- p.m.
- He is within the specific category of employees as mentioned in section 2(s) of the Act.
