Dear Sumit Gupta,
The Industrial Disputes Act under Section 2(s) defines a “Workman” as–
Any person (including an apprentice) employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be expressed or implied, and for the purpose of any proceeding under this Act in relation to an industrial dispute, includes any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched in connection with, or as a consequence of, that dispute, or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that dispute, but does not include any such person-
(i) who is subject to the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), or the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), or the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957); or
(ii) who is employed in the police service or as an officer or other employee of a prison; or
(iii) who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity; or
(iv) who, being employed in a supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding one thousand sic hundred rupees per mensem or exercises, either by nature of duties attached to the office or by reason of the powers vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial nature.
If we analyse the above definition, we will find two limbs, one affirming who a workman is and the other enlisting who is not a workman from among the four classifications mentioned therein.
For the sake of brevity, let me explain only the second limb of the definition. Of the exhaustive four classifications, the first two are self-explanatory while the other two, in fact, need some introspection to really understand who a workman as per the Industrial Disputes Act,1947 is. In both the parts, the word " capacity" is repeatedly used with the adjectives of managerial, administrative and supervisory to qualify the employment of the excluded category. The word " capacity " here not only means ability but also position, role and duty attributed to the individual's employment. A Manager or an Administrator has at times to do some clerical, manual, technical, supervisory works in the course of his employment but they are incidental only. His main or principal or predominant activity is managing or administering which are, in short, more of thinking functions of managing people than of doing functions. Coming to supervisory position or role, only men need to be supervised and not machines or materials. So, a supervisor is vested with the power of control over the people under his supervision. However, the definition imposes a condition on the exclusion in terms wages received beyond a certain sum i.e Rs.10,000/=p.m. Therefore, even a supervisor is not a workman if his monthly wages or salary exceeds Rs.10,000/=.
By and large, wage or salary or remuneration or designation can not be a criterion to decide who a workman is other than the actual work performed by him viz manual or unskilled or technical or clerical or operational. Only in the case of supervisory work, one ceases to be a workman if his wages exceed the limit of Rs.10,000/=p.m.
Now, in this back-drop, pl analyse the posts you mentioned and arrive at a conclusion.