ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has ruled that a worker’s services will not be terminated, dismissed, discharged, discharged or dismissed from service except by a written order explicitly stating the reason for the action taken.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazahar, while upholding the order of the Sindh High Court, observed that as per the classification of workers under Permanent Order 1 of the 1968 Ordinance, a “permanent worker” is a worker who has undertaken work of a permanent nature likely to last for more than nine months and has satisfactorily completed a probationary period of three months in the same or another occupation, in an industrial or commercial establishment, including sick breaks, accident, furlough, lockout, strike (other than a lockout or illegal strike) or involuntary closure of the establishment; and a “temporary worker” is a worker who has been hired for work of an essentially temporary nature that is likely to be completed within a period not exceeding nine months.
“Whereas Permanent Order 12 of the 1968 Ordinance emphasizes that for dismissing a permanent employee, for any reason other than misconduct, the employer or the employee shall give one month’s notice and in lieu of notice one month’s salary calculated on the basis of the average salary earned by the employee during the last three months shall be paid.
“Further, no temporary worker, whether monthly, weekly, daily or piece-rate, nor any probationary or badli worker, shall be entitled to receive any notice if his services are terminated by the employer, nor shall such worker be required to give any notice or pay wages in lieu thereof to the employer if he leaves employment of his own volition,” Justice Muhammad Ali Mazahar says in his judgment.
The judgment notes that the retrenchment procedure is explained in Standing Order 13 of the Industrial and Commercial Employment Ordinance 1968, which states that where a worker is to be dismissed and belongs to a particular category of workers, the employer must dismiss the worker who is the last person employed in that category.
“Furthermore, Standing Order 14, relating to the reemployment of dismissed workers, contains the clause that where any number of workers are laid off and the employer proposes to hire any person within a period of one year from the date of such reduction, he shall give an opportunity to the laid off workers belonging to the category in question by sending a notice by registered mail to their last known addresses to offer to
reemployment, and will have preference over other people, each having a priority according to the length of service at the employer’s service.
“The provision annexed to the Standing Order provides that in the case of a seasonal factory within the meaning of section 4 of the Factories Act, 1934, a worker who was dismissed in one season and reports for work within ten days of the resumption of work in the factory in the immediately following season will be given preference for employment by the employer.
“It is further provided that in the case of a seasonal factory, the employer may send a notice by certified mail to the last known address of a worker who was dismissed in a season, requiring him to report on a day specified in the notice, not earlier than ten days before the resumption of work in said factory, and if such worker so informs, he will be given preference for employment and will be paid full wages from the day on which he reports.”
