Dear Ms.Parimala,
Designation cannot be the deciding factor for the determination of the nature of the job position held by an employed person nor the amount of salary paid to him. It is always the nature of duties predominantly discharged by him which goes ultimately to decide whether one is a workman under the IDA,1947 or not. If we analyze the definition of the term " workman " u/s 2(s) of the ID Act,1947, it is manifest for a person employed to do (1) Manual work (2) Unskilled work (3) Skilled work (4) Technical work (5) Operational work (6) Clerical work or (7) Supervisory work as per the terms of the contract of employment would be a workman and if he is mainly employed in a managerial or administrative capacity, he is not a workman. In addition, if employed in a supervisory capacity and draws wages exceeding Rs.10000/= p.m or exercises functions mainly of managerial or administrative nature, he is not a workman. Strictly applying these parameters to each employee facing premature discharge in the IT or ITES establishments for obvious reasons, you can come to a conclusion whether he is a workman or not so as to claim retrenchment compensation u/s 25-F of the Act.
Regarding managers, strictly speaking, only the terms of exit fixed in case of unilateral termination of the contract of employment by the employer have to be adopted to determine the amount of compensation. Of course, higher rate of compensation may be paid out of mutual bargaining as pointed out to be the practice in vogue in certain IT companies by Mr. KK!HR.