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ANNEXURE-P-7

STEPHENS FINANCIAL SERVICE LTD.

BEFORE THE DEPUTY LABOUR COMMISISONER-CUM-CONCILIATION OFFICER, RAJKOT,

In the matter of: -      Stephens Financial Service Ltd. & the Stephens Financial Union representing all the employees of Stephens Financial Service Ltd.

In the above noted matter, the Management of Stephens Financial Service Ltd. & M/s. Usha Fan (P) Ltd. (hereinafter shall be referred to as “the Management”) beg to file their counter on the claims of the workmen as follows:-

BACKGROUND

This matter has been referred for conciliation before this Forum as per the order dated 20.10.2017 passed by the Hon’ble High Court of Gujrat in WP(C) No.1509/2016. The Hon’ble Court has been pleased to directed the Conciliation Officer to examine the factual aspects to ascertain the number of employees who were in employment with the Corporation (IDC) prior to the transfer in favour of M/s. Usha Fan (P) Ltd.  and to produce the same before the Conciliation Officer to resolve the claim of the concerned workmen. The Hon’ble Court has also given liberty to the Workers’ Union to defend the claim. The operative part of the order of the Hon’ble High Court reads as under:-

                3.     Shri R. Jain, learned senior counsel on behalf of the opposite party No.1, submits that the affidavits which were filed is more than the number of persons who were working in the transferor company as on the date of transfer of shares in favour of the transferee company. This is a disputed question of fact. Thereafter, this Court cannot examine all these factual aspects or need not examine the same in view of the prayer mode in the petition that the same is not pressed. In this view of the matter, it would be suffice for this Court to direct the Deputy Labour Commissioner, who is the conciliation officer of the area in question, to examine the same. For this purpose opposite party No.4 thought it has furnished all the documents to the opposite party No.1 with regard to the number of employees who were in employment with the said Corporation prior to the transfer in favour of opposite party no.1 with regard to the number of employees who were in employment with the said Corporation prior to the transfer in favour of opposite party No.1 is once again directed to furnish the documents in this regard. If the documents have been obtained by the transferee company earlier shall be produced before the Conciliation Officer to resolve the claim of the concerned workmen. The Petitioner union is at liberty to defend the claim of the concerned workmen before the said Conciliation Officer. For this purpose opposite party Nos.1 and 4 shall remain present and produce all the relevant records in relation to the employment of the concerned workmen who were employed in the transferor company to the opposite party No.1. On receipt of such claim and counter claim, the Deputy Labour Commissioner/ Conciliation Officer is directed to resolve the dispute by identifying the concerned workmen who were employees of the transferor company and pay their monetary benefits and legal entitlements after granting valuntary retirement benefits and other monetary dues. If any, to the workmen. The said exercise shall be made and completed by the above parties as expeditiously as possible but not later than eight weeks from the date of appearing before the Conciliation Officer.

SUBMISSION OF THE MANAGEMENT:

From the aforementioned orders of the Hon’ble Court, it is apparent that the learned Conciliation Officer is to decide two issues, which are (1) to identity the concerned workmen who were employees of the transferor company, (2) to pay their monetary benefits and legal entitlements after granting voluntary retirement benefits and other monetary dues, if any, to the workmen.

ISSUE NO.(1):-

In the counter given by the Workers’ Union before this Hon’ble Conciliation Officer, they submitted the names of 402 regular workers, 53 casual worker, 10 directed laborers, totaling to 510 men power as on 12.08.2013. After the VRS after, 220 persons opted out for VRS as on 31.08.2013; 04 persons retired from December, 2013 to November, 2014; 04 left their services and out of those persons 01 was under deputation and he was taken back, 01 person was terminated from the services, 01 person died and 01 casual employee left his service; other 310 applications were submitted for VRS/VSS by the regular  employees and 61 applications from the causal and direct laborers were submitted under the voluntary separation scheme. 04 persons died meanwhile and only 01 person who is a casual employee has opted for continuance in service.

It is submitted by the Management that the aforesaid figures are not in consonance with the available data with the management as on 12.08.2013 which was the date of the taking over. The List is enclosed as Annexure-A. From the document Annexure-A it is apparent that, as distinguished from 402 employees which has been given by the Service union of HIW, there were 368 employees as per the documents with the Management and the detailed bifurcations in nut shell is as under.

	Total employees	Non-Workmen	Workmen
HIW	350	55	295
Project Wing	210	32	178
Hira Cable	61	28	33
Total	621	115	506

Added to this, there are 53 Nos. of casual labourers and 10 Nos. of direct labourers which has been added to Annexure-A separately containing 09 sheets.

Since the matter involves workmen only as has been referred to by the Hon’ble Court, the number of workmen comes to 321 as on the date of transfer of undertaking out of which 90 workmen have taken VRS/VSS as on 31.08.2013. Therefore, only the cases of the balance workmen are to be considered during this conciliation.

ISSUE NO.(2):-

In sofar as the monetary benefits are concerned, as has been referred to by the Hon’ble Court, the Service union through the General Secretary have put forth their claims under 11 different heads which is being dealt with as below:-

1)     Pending salary of regular employees from November, 2012 to July, 2013.

It is submitted that the Employees’ Union has claimed a sum of Rs.92,28,420.00 as per their list Annexure-1. The Management begs to submit its statement vide Annexure-B attached to this reply.

Stephens Finance Service Ltd.

Summary statement of arrear salary (net liability)

(November 2012 to July 2013)

UNIT	Workmen as per HIW Records	As per Union Claim
HIW	5,467,963	7,630,521
HCW	810,420	2,640,678
PW	510,590	2,211,562
Total	6,788,973	12,162,761

Since the question of workmen is the subject matter of consideration before the Conciliation Officer, the details liability which is accepted by the Management is Rs.57,36,953/- and the details can be viewed from Annexure-B.

2)     Pending salary of regular and casual employees: August, 2013 to November, 2013.

In this regard Service Union has claimed Rs.78,25,913/- as per their Annexure. 

In this regard the Management submits that the liability of Workmen for this period from August, 2013 to November, 2013 comes to Rs.52,20,040/- as detailed in Annexure-C.

3)     Pending salary of causal employees from November, 2012 July, 2013.

The Service Union in their statement of claims has claimed a sum of Rs.3,79,365/- towards the pending salary of casual employees for the period from November, 2012 July, 2013.

The Management admits the same to the extent of Rs.3,05,110.22 or say Rs.2,06,075/- as detailed in Annexure-D.

4)     Pending salary of regular and caused employees: Dec. 2013 to October 2017.

The Workers’ Union claims the dues to the extent of Rs.5,16,36,280/- towards the pending salary of casual and regular employees from December, 2013 to October, 2017.

It is submitted that the Management is not liable to pay any salary for the period from December, 2013 to October, 2017 because of the fact that the industry was under closure/ work suspension  during that period and the Management is not liable for any amount as claimed by the workmen on the principle of no work no pay’. 

5)     VRS/VSS retirement dues of regular employees.

The Service Union claims a sum of Rs.6,17,32,489/- towards the valuntary retirement scheme (VRS) and voluntary separation scheme (VSS) of the regular employees.

The claim of the Service Union in this regard is completely denied due to the reasons as detailed below.

In this connection, it is submitted by the Management that the VR and the VS Schemes have been detailed in para 5.4 of the share purchase agreement (SPA) wherein it has been specifically agreed by the parties that the State Government shall pay 80% of the VR dues or VS dues and the rest 25% is to be borne by the Management within a stipulated period in para-5.4 (ii) of the SPA, Para-5.4 (iii) of the SPA further speaks that after the conclusion of the transactions, in case the Company intents to implement any VRS/VSS for any of its permanent employees within a period of 02 years from the closing date, the benefits under that Scheme should be at least as attractive as that is offered by the Government in similar cases prior to the date of closing. However, the PSA is silent about the VRS/ VSS scheme, if any, implemented by the Management after expiry of 02 years from the closing date. Since the stipulated period of 02 years has already been elapsed, the Management cannot be compelled now to go for the VRS or VSS Scheme as offered earlier. However, if the Government contributes its part of 85%, then the Management will bear the rest 25% of the amount. Besides this, it is submitted that since the VRS or VSS period is already expired, the Management has proposed fresh VRS/VSS scheme which is annexed herewith as Annexure-E subject to the acceptance by the Service Union and the cut off date shall be 31^st July, 2013 as has been proposed by the Service union earlier.  

6)     VSS dues of casual and direct labourers

The Service Union has submitted VSS dues of causal and direct labourers to the extent of Rs.53,32,799/-

It is submitted that the Management Completely denies any VSS scheme dues of casual or direct labourer engaged during any period of time since they do not come under any scheme.

7)     Dues of Deceased employees:

In this regard the Service Union has claimed a sum of Rs.8,07,091/- towards the dues of the deceased employees.

The Management have also calculated the dues of deceased employees. However, for the purpose of this conciliation the dues of two workmen namely S.Chandra and Prasad Kar comes to Rs.1,30,920/- as detailed in Annexure-F attached to this reply.

8)     Bonus of casual and direct labourers

The Service Union has claimed a sum of Rs.89,552/- towards bonus of casual and direct labourers.

The Management denies such claim of the Service Union in toto in view of the fact that the said claim is not maintainable.

9)     Misc. dues of employees such as TA bill, Medical Bill, Purchase & Exp. Canteen Bill, Pay Rev. Arrear, Club Bill, Temple Contribution, Co-operative Store Bill, LIC dues, Bank Lab. Etc.

The Workers’ Union claims a sum of Rs.1781265/- under these heads.

In this regard it is submitted by the Management that the dues under the above heads are all question of facts and subject to production of bills and vouchers followed by approval by the competent authority. Since those documents are not at all available with the Management, it cannot be considered and hence the claim of the Service Union in this regard is denied. On the other hand, from the records available with the Management it is found that a sum of Rs.58,25,625.76 is pending against various employees towards advocates taken by them during their service period. The detailed list and figures is annexed as Annexure-G. Propriety requires that those amounts which are taken as advances are to be adjusted with the dues payable by the Management.

10)    Agreement arrear dues from 01.04.1999 to 30.11.2000

The Workers’ Union has claimed a sum of Rs.38,10,430/- towards arrear dues from 01.04.1999 to 30.11.2000 as has been agreed upon.

In this regard it is submitted by the Management that the liability to the workmen under this head comes to Rs.25,63,520/- only. The details have been calculated by the Management and is annexed as Annexure –H.

11)    Revised DA as per IDCOL (as mentioned in SPA)

The Workers’ Union has claimed a sum of Rs.6,60,450/- towards Revised DA as per the IDCOL (as mentioned in SPA).

The Management denies such claim of the Workers’ Union in toto in view of the fact that nothing has been mentioned in SPA regarding DA, much less as per IDCOL.

Having answered the claims of the Service Union as has been put forth before this Hon’ble Conciliation Officer, now the Management further wants to add their case so as to facilitate the implementation of the orders’ of the Hon’ble High Court for the benefit of the workers. It is submitted that after reopening of the factory the Management took stock of the situation of the factory premises as well as the office and assessed the working condition of the plants and machineries. It is ascertained by the Management that there is a considerable damage of the entire factory premises including plant and machineries. Almost every where these are damages caused by hooligans and outsiders. It is also seen that even if security personnel have been deployed, they are unable to control the hooligans who are intruding inside the factory premises with groups with arms and ammunitions and breaking and taking away the plant and machineries, materials, scraps, raw materials etc., as and when they please. Under these circumstances, it has become necessary to sell out the scraps and other materials which cannot be used in any other manner for production activities as to prevent the mischief mongers from committing theft and further destroying the properties of the Management. Moreover, if an early decision is taken in this regard, it will also facilitate the Management to pay the dues of the workmen by depositing the sale proceeds before this Hon’ble Conciliation Officer so that an early solution of the matter can be made.

The Management reserves the right to add, alter, vary this written submission at any time during the pendency of these proceedings and any other proceedings and as when new material facts are available with the Management. Besides this, it is further submitted that this conciliation is being made at the initiation of the Hon’ble high Court to decide the cases of the workmen only and not others and hence this reply of the Management is limited to the cases of the workmen and the Management does not want to venture for other employees for the purpose of this conciliation.

By the Management

For Stephens Finance Service Ltd.

Vice-President (Finance)

Date: 12.12.2017

-TRUE COPY-

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