Does Managerial Staff Qualify as 'Workmen' Under Punjab's 1968 Ordinance?

Sir, kindly let me know whether, according to this definition of workman, "workman means a person employed in an industrial and commercial establishment to do any skilled or unskilled, manual or electrical work for hire or reward," managerial and supervisory staff may fall under the definition of workman. This term has been defined in the Industrial and Commercial Employment Ordinance 1968 as applicable in the Government of Punjab (Pakistan).

Managerial and supervisor categories will not fall under the ambit of the Industrial Disputes Act.

I have attached a copy of the Labour Court award for your reference.

Normally, both in legal and common parlance, the term "workman" implies a state of subordination. In statutes, terms are defined with reference to the object and purpose for which they are enacted. If the meaning of a particular term seems either limited or very general in a regulatory statute applicable to a certain class of establishments, we have to look for its exact meaning in a corresponding statute governing industrial relations and applicable to the same establishment.

If you compare the definitions of the term "workman" in the Industrial and Commercial Establishments Ordinance, 1968, and in the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969, you will find who a workman is and who are not workmen based on the capacity of employment in the latter ordinance. Therefore, even though employed in a commercial establishment in works involving the jobs of the nature specified in the definition of "workman" in the Ordinance, 1968, a person cannot be so if he is employed in the managerial or administrative cadre or in the supervisory cadre exceeding the salary of Rs. 800.00 p.m as defined in clauses (a) and (b) of the proviso to Section 2(xxviii) of the Ordinance, 1969.

Regards, Baig