PWD engineers fined for withholding salaries of employees

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Labour Court judge, S S Sahasrabuddhe, imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each upon the Public Works Department’s (PWD) superintending engineer Vivek Trimbak Bade and the executive engineer Ashok Vamanrao Yerekar for contempting Industrial Court’s order and withholding the salaries of the petitioners at the Subhedari Rest House. The duo have also been held for adopting ‘unfair labour practices.’

The two officials will have to serve a 15-day imprisonment each, stated the court's order, if they fail to pay the fine.

What is the criminal complaint?

In the criminal complaint filed by Fernandes Francis Lalzhare and 17 others through Adv Rajaram Mule, it was stated that 180 posts for Classes 3 and 4 were approved for the Subhedari Guest House. The petitioners had been working on a daily wage basis since 2005. The employees requested the then-superintending engineer for permanent employment. To address this demand, they approached the Industrial Court seeking permanent employment with other benefits in 2013.

The court granted a status quo and refrained from removing them from their jobs. These orders remained in effect until 2022. Meanwhile, in 2016, the petitioners' salaries were stopped. Consequently, they filed a criminal complaint in the Labour Court for contempt of the Industrial Court's order. The ruling was delivered on Thursday (27th), as mentioned above.

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...Therefore, a fine instead of a punishment

Regarding punishment, the accused requested the court to consider that both are government servants and Bade had been transferred to Mumbai. They requested a milder punishment.

Since this is the first offence committed by both of them, the court observed that imposing a fine of Rs 5,000 each would be just instead of punishment. Following the court's order, both accused paid a total fine of Rs 10,000 to the court.