Termination after 238 days to avoid permanency is unfair labour practice: Bombay HC

Recently, the Bombay High Court in Shankar Bhimrao Kadam & Ors. vs. Tata Motors Limited W.P.No. 5588/2017 while hearing the batch of petitions wherein one of the common question was whether the employer indulged in unfair labour practice by engaging the workers on temporary basis for core manufacturing activity. The Court while ruling in favour of the workers observed that the employer has systematically prevented the workers (hired on temporary basis for 7 months) from completing240 days in continuous employment and had foisted involuntary unemployment on these temporaries before they could complete240 days only to paint an imperfect picture that the work had come to an end and, therefore, these temporaries were disengaged by efflux of time, which is an exception to retrenchment under section 2(oo)(bb) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.