Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Gratuity Act applicable to all tailoring units: High Court

MADURAI: The Payment of Gratuity (PoG) Act, 1972, is applicable to all tailoring units irrespective of their staff strength, the Madras High Court has ruled.

Justice K. Chandru held that there could not be a distinction between tailoring units with less than 10 employees and others because Section 1(3) (a) of the PoG Act states that the enactment shall apply to every factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port and railway company.

Tailoring units were categorised under the term “factories” as the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948, were made applicable to such units through a State Government notification issued as early as September 9, 1967.

Besides, the term in the PoG Act had borrowed its definition from the Factories Act.

“A minimum of 10 workers are required for the application of the Factories Act if a factory depends largely upon electric power. However, the State Government is empowered to apply the provisions of the Act to any factory having less than 10 workers by virtue of a special notification issued under Section 85 (1) of the Factories Act,” the Judge said.

The ruling was passed while dismissing a writ petition filed by a tailoring unit from Tirunelveli. The petitioner said that an Assistant Commissioner of Labour rejected a claim petition filed by one of its tailors seeking gratuity on the ground that he had worked in the unit for 34 years.

Nevertheless, on appeal, the Joint Commissioner allowed the claim petition.

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