Concept of 'Workman'

A bank’s peon, its cashier, its branch manager and the trainee who joined last month all sit in the same building and all draw a salary. If all four are dismissed on the same day, only some of them can walk into the labour machinery. Who counts as a “workman”, and why does a job title not settle it? The answer decides who gets the protection of the industrial law and who is left to ordinary contract remedies.

In two minutes

The syllabus word “workman” corresponds in the Industrial Relations Code 2020 to “worker” (s.2(zr)): any person employed in an industry to do manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, excluding apprentices, armed forces, police and prison staff, persons mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity, and supervisors drawing wages above the notified ceiling (eighteen thousand rupees a month as stated).

The rest of this chapter

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