WORKMEN OF THE CALCUTTA ELECTRIC SUPPLY CORPORATION LTD. versus CALCUTTA ELECTRIC SUPPLY CORPORATION LTD.

Citation: [1974] 1 S.C.R. 138 · Decided: 01-05-1973 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: C.A. VAIDYIALINGAM · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

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Judgment (excerpt)

138 
WORKMEN OF THE CALCUTTA ELECTRIC SUPPLY 
CORPORATION LTD. 
v. 
CALCUTTA ELECTRIC SUPPLY CORPORATION LTD. 
May·I, 1973 
(A. N. GROVER, A. K. ·MUKHERJEA. AND .C. A. .VAIDIALINGAM JJ.] 
B 
Industrial Dispute-Oi'ettin1e 
wages, rate 
of-Payment for all working 
hours in excess of prescribed ll'orking hours must be at special rates and not at 
time rates,' 
· 
Different categories of employees of the respondent company had different 
weekly hours of work prescribed for them. The \Veekly hours for some were 
48, for others 40 and for some others 3.5. 
Overtime \Vas paid to different cate-
gories of \\'Orkn1en at different rates and was calculated by different sr.stems. In 
an industrial dispute between the company and its workmen the Tnbunal held 
that an employees 
were to get overtime for any period in excess 
of their 
weekly hours of work but less than 48 hours a week, at tl:eir time rates. For 
periods exceeding 48 hours a week all workmen were to receive overtime 
wages at 1 ! times their respective time-rates.. In appeal by special leave the 
appellant wor1.111en contended that if an employee had to work beyond his sche-
duled working hours he should get proportij>nately 
more wages for each of 
such extra hours. · 
. 
HELD : The decision of this Court in Indian Oxygen Ltd. requires payment 
of overtin1e \vages for all hours in ·excess •of the prescribed working hours at 
sjJecial ove;time rates and. n_ot at time-rates. In view of this decision, which is 
binding, tte appeal must be allowed. 
Overtime 
to the appellants must 
be 
paid for <it l} times the hourly rate foi all hours of work beyond the seheduled 
hours and r.ot merely for hours of \vork beyond 48 h<!urs in a week. 
[140fl] 
[With the consent of the parties the Court further directed that in respect 
· of the past period overtime payments for hours of work in excess of tke sChe-
duled hours uvto 48 hours should ·be at l ! times the hourly rate which tile 
company had already paid in terms of the Award]. 
Indian 0.ro·gen Ltd. v. Their Workmen. [1969] I S.C.R. _550, followed. 
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 1924 of 1968. 
Appeal by special leave from the Award dated January 31, 19.68 
of the Ilnd Industrial Tribunal, West-Bengal, Calcutta in Case No. 
VIII-65 of I 967 published in the Calcutta Gazette dated February 
29, 1968. 
R. K. Garg, S. C. 
Aggarwala, and Haroobhai 
Mehta, for the 
appellant. 
c 
D 
E 
F 
'G 
P. P. Ginwalla, Arijit Chauduri, Bhuvanesh Ku1n11ri and 0. C. 
Mathur, for the respondent. 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
MUKHERJEA, J. This appeal by special leave from an Award dated 
31January1968 of the Second Industrial Tribunal, West Bengal, relates 
essentially to the manner of calculation of overtime wages for non-
H 
factory personnel (including the members of the clerical staff) of the 
Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 
the Company). The question that was referred to the Tribunal for 
A 
B 
c 
D 
E 
F 
G 
H 
WORKMEN V, CALCUTTA ELECTRIC SUPPLY. CORP. LTD. 
139 
(Mukherjea, J.) 
adjudication was framed by the Government of West Bengal in its order 
of reference in the-following manner:-
. 
"How wages for non-factory personnel 
(including the 
members of the clerical staff) should be calculated and the 
date from which overtime wages for such personnel should be 
lhus calculated ?" 
The Tribunal in its Award directed that the overtime rate focnon-
factory personnel should in no case be less than the time-rate. · The 
Tribunal further directed that ne- employee should get overtime at more 
than the time-rate until he has completed 48 hours a week but that as 
soon as he exceeds 48 hours, the overtime rate should be H times the 
time-rate. 
This rate of overtime wages in favour of the non-factory 
personnel was directed to be given effect to from 4 February-1967 which 
was the date of reference. 
The workmen of the company have now 
come on appeal against the decision of the Tribunal in so far as the 
Tribunal limited the overtime wages to the time-rate for any period short 
of 48 .hours a week. 
It appears that different categories of employees of the company 
have different weekly hours of work prescribes! for them. The weekly 
hours for some are 48, for others 40 and for some others 35. 
The 
learned Tribunal seems to have been impressed by the fact that over-
time was paid to different categories of workmen at different rates and 
that they were calculated by diff

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