‘No overtime wages for working more than 7.5 hours and less than 8 hours’

Justice S Vaidyanathan on quoting Supreme Court orders striking down similar pleas of overtime wages for work done for less than eight hours a day, said “It is crystal clear that even if the prescribed hours of work is reduced to seven and half hours a day, he cannot demand wages, as if he has worked overtime, when the wage is payable for eight hours.”

“Even assuming that a wrong has been committed by the management with regard to the grant of payment of another employee, this court is not inclined to commit another wrong,” the Judge said.

Also, noting that the petitioner herein has not worked for more than eight hours a day and hence would not be entitled to overtime wages, the Judge held, “The issue raised by the petitioner is a disputed question of fact, which cannot be delved into by this court.” “It is no doubt true that the petitioner has got a right to agitate his relief before the industrial forum in view of the fact that the petitioner is a workman as per the Industrial Disputes Act and therefore this court is not inclined to grant the relief sought for by the petitioner,” Justice Vaidyanathan added.

The petitioner MK Thiyagarajan employed at Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited had moved the court seeking for a direction to disburse the extra wages for extracting work of 4935 hours equivalent to 616.5 working days excluding the service period of 2009 to 2013.