Madras High Court orders regularisation of 1,121 Tiruchy BHEL workers in 4 months

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) to regularise 1,121 contract workers of the Tiruchy BHEL unit within four months.

The BHEL Valaga Oppanda Thozhilalar Nala Sangam filed a case before the Central Government Industrial Tribunal in Chennai, seeking regularisation of 1,121 of its staff members working on a contract basis at the Thiruverumbur BHEL unit near Trichy. However, the tribunal dismissed the petition.

Challenging this order, M Sekar, the general secretary of the BHEL Campus Contract Workers Welfare Association, filed a case before the Madras High Court.

Hearing the petition, Justice Hemant Chandangoudar observed that the tribunal had misunderstood the evidence and records and had passed an arbitrary and perverse order and set aside the tribunal's order.

Further, the judge ruled that the members of the petitioner association should be considered as employees of BHEL and also directed that all those who had worked for more than 240 days in a year must be regularised with all benefits within four months.