Is Wage Limit Enough to Classify Employees as Workmen or Supervisors? What Else Matters?

Determining Employee Category: Workmen or Supervisor

Is the wage limit sufficient to determine if an employee falls into the workmen category or the supervisor category? Are there other aspects that should be considered to establish whether an employee is classified as a workman or a supervisor?

Please help me with this matter.

Definition of Workmen Under the Industrial Disputes Act

As per the definition in the Industrial Disputes Act, employees performing managerial or administrative functions or working in a supervisory capacity and drawing wages exceeding Rs. 1,600 per month are outside the purview of the definition of workmen.

Interpretation of Managerial and Supervisory Functions

However, the Act does not define what functions can be considered of managerial nature and supervisory capacity. The interpretation of these two concepts depends on the facts of each case. Describing certain functions as managerial or administrative does not exclude employees performing them from the scope of the definition of workmen if the independence of decision-making and the binding nature of such decisions are not established. It must be proven that the functions performed by employees with elements of managerial/administrative or supervisory capacity involve independent decision-making power that is binding on the organization. Only then are employees performing such functions outside the purview of the definition of workmen under the ID Act. The determination of these questions should be based on facts supported by the required evidence.