Sorry to differ from the views of M/S Vargheese and Arun. The essential condition of a person being a workman within the terms of the definition under Section 2(s) of the ID Act, 1947 is that they should be employed to do work in that industry and that there should be an employment relationship involving the employer and employee. Where the employer-employee relationship in an industry is established, the person employed is deemed to be a workman unless specifically excluded. Of the four exclusions mentioned in the definition, the last two are relevant to the present discussion: managers or administrators, irrespective of their wages or salaries, and supervisors with wages exceeding Rs1600/= p.m or those exercising functions of mainly managerial nature in terms of their duties or by reason of powers. Here, the emphasis is on the capacity of jobs assigned to them and not on the mere nomenclature or designation of the job.
Supreme Court Rulings on Workman Definition
The Supreme Court has ruled in S.K. Verma v. Mahesh Chandra [AIR 1984 S.C 1462] that the entire labor force, irrespective of the nature and duties of the post, falls within the definition of the word 'workman,' and only the managerial force and the supervisory force to the extent excepted in the definition stand excluded. The decision of the Supreme Court in Burma Shell's case [1970 (2) LLJ. 590] is to be applied to ascertain whether a person employed in a particular job would be a workman or not. If we analyze the cases of professionally qualified persons such as Doctors, C.As, Lawyers, and the like employed in an industry in light of the above and other judicial decisions, we would be able to determine whether they are workmen or not. For this, the following observation of the Supreme Court in Arkal Govindaraj Rao v. CIBA Geigy of India Ltd., Bombay [1985 LIC 1008] would be helpful: "... The test that one must employ in such a case is what was the primary, basic, or dominant nature of duties for which the person whose status under enquiry was employed. A few extra duties would hardly be relevant to determine his status. The words like managerial or supervisory have to be understood in their proper connotation and their mere use should not detract from the truth."
Case Study: Medical Officers in the Railway
Following the above decisions and Ved Prakash Gopta v. Dalton Cable India (P) Ltd. (1984 LIC. 658), the High Court held that the duties of the Asst. Medical Officer employed by the Railway to treat the patients who are employees of the Railways and their families are technical, and any supervisory functions such a doctor may exercise are incidental to the discharge of his duties as a Medical Attendant of the Railway employees and their families [Dr. Surendra Kumar Shukla v. Union of India and others - 1986 LIC. 1516].