The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "Managements must adopt humane approach towards workmen"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 13, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"Managements must adopt humane approach towards workmen"

Special Correspondent

Opportunities in Lok Adalats must be made known to labourers: judge

CHENNAI: Unfair labour practice is an evil that will adversely affect the relationship between labourers and management, Justice M. Karpagavinayagam, Judge, Madras High Court, has said.

Addressing a legal literacy campaign for labouring communities, organised by the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA) here on Friday, he said judicial officers hearing labour-related matters must have social consciousness and render justice after stepping into the shoes of labourers.

Mr. Justice Karpagavinayagam, who is also the Executive Chairman of TNSLSA, urged owners to adopt a humane approach towards their workmen. A management that ensured that none of its workers approached any judicial forum for adjudication was the best management.

Though the country had a plethora of laws and provisions covering every aspect of life, their enforcement and meaningful implementation was the biggest problem. The laws existed on paper. Procedures and opportunities available in lok adalats should be made known to workmen so that they could avail themselves of the facility, he said.

He congratulated TNSLSA for organising a labour lok adalat on Friday, where 14 cases were settled and benefited 98 workers.

Justice Prafulla Kumar Misra, Chairman of the High Court Legal Services Committee, said discord in relations between labourers and management would affect the entire nation. Disputes could be resolved better through conciliation and mediation than through regular courts. He lamented that neither managements nor labour unions were aware of their legal rights and legal duties.

G.M. Akbar Ali, District Judge and Member-Secretary of TNSLSA, said with the industrial sector witnessing a rapid growth, the relationship between the management and labourers was no more a private affair.

V. Periyakaruppiah, Principal Sessions Judge, R. Muniratnam, Principal Labour Judge, and Prison Adalat Counsel V. Kannadasan participated in the function.

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