Labour and industrial disputes

The work

Service and labour matters turn on procedure. Whether the enquiry gave a fair opportunity, whether the material relied on was supplied, whether the rules in force at the time were followed — these decide more cases than the merits of the underlying conduct.

When clients come with this

• A charge sheet or show-cause notice has been issued to you.
• A penalty has been imposed after a departmental enquiry.
• You have been terminated, retrenched, or told to resign.
• You were superseded for promotion, or your seniority has been altered.
• Pension or retirement dues have been withheld.
• An industrial dispute has been raised against your establishment.

What this covers

• Disciplinary proceedings and departmental enquiries
• Termination, retrenchment and reinstatement
• Promotion, seniority and pay fixation
• Pension, gratuity and retirement benefits
• Proceedings before the Central Administrative Tribunal and labour courts

The enquiry file is the case

In service and disciplinary matters the departmental file usually decides the outcome, and obtaining it is the first substantive step. It shows whether the documents relied upon were supplied, whether the employee was permitted to cross-examine, whether the enquiry officer recorded findings with reasons, and whether the enquiry report was furnished before the penalty was imposed. Any one of these, absent, is a ground.

Proportionality is the second line. Even where misconduct is established, a penalty grossly disproportionate to the charge is interfered with, and a long unblemished record is relevant to that assessment.

Termination and retrenchment

For workmen, the protections in the industrial legislation are procedural and specific: notice or wages in lieu, retrenchment compensation, the order of retrenchment by seniority, and the requirement of permission where the establishment crosses the prescribed threshold. Non-compliance renders the termination bad irrespective of the merits of the underlying decision.

For employees outside that definition, the analysis shifts to the contract and to whether the termination was punitive in substance while dressed as simple discharge — a distinction that has generated a large body of case law and decides many of these matters.

Pension, gratuity and recovery of alleged overpayments

Retirement dues are often the whole of a retired person's income, and withholding them pending proceedings is permitted only within the limits the rules prescribe, with provisional pension generally payable meanwhile. Applications on this are usually straightforward and disproportionately important to the applicant.

Recovery of an excess payment made years earlier through no misrepresentation by the employee is a related and frequently successful challenge, particularly where the employee has retired or occupied a lower grade.