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Judgment
Rajasekhar Mantha, J
This Court has received a detailed proposal from the respondent no. 4 and particularly from Mr. Soumya Majumder, learned Counsel for them. The object and purpose of seeking proposal was to put in place a workable system to ensure that Provident Fund dues of persons licensed by the Calcutta Port Trust and the Customs Authority (not employed either by Calcutta Port Trust or Customs Authority) but allowed to work in the Port Trust area for the purpose of loading and unloading of goods, receive Provident Fund.
The existing system is, inter alia, that persons paying wages, i.e., the shipping and clearing Agent are required to engage only those workmen who hold the licence as indicated herein above. Presently, the allocation of work to these workmen is in the hands of a person called "Sardar". The Sardars are neither the employers nor the persons responsible for the payment of wage to the individual workman. The work done by the workmen, is on a job work basis, i.e,. upon being required by a shipping and clearing agent, workers are allotted by the Sardars to such Agents for the purpose of loading and unloading of goods that pass through Calcutta Port Trust.
The money is paid on a lumpsum basis to such workmen being entrusted temporarily with the job of loading and unloading in respect of the specific consignment, by the shipping and clearing Agents to the Sardars who are subsequently supposed to pass on the same in its entirety to the workmen-petitioners.
The expression "workmen" is used to refer to the petitioners and should not be construed in the statutory context.
The Provident Fund Authorities being statutorily responsible for collecting Provident Fund contributions payable to each of the aforesaid petitioner, have indicated a practical difficulty being faced by them in fastening liability under the EPF and MP Act, 1952 on any particular individual to secure the interest of the workmen. They have adopted a procedure of saddling such liability on the importer, which has been correctly set aside by the authorities under the Act itself.
This Court sees a practical difficulty in the interest of the workmen being secured, i.e., their Provident Fund rights and the fastening of liability in identifying an employer within the meaning of the Act.
It is in the aforesaid light that the aforesaid proposal has been sought for and received from Mr. Soumya Majumder, learned Counsel for the respondent no.4. The proposal has been circulated amongst all the stakeholders.
This Court has also requested the Calcutta Port Trust to participate in the instant proceedings only with a view to secure the interest of the workmen and to request them to take on a limited responsibility of receiving the wages of the workmen and crediting the contributions payable in respect thereof to the Provident Fund Authorities in the name of each individual workman. The Port Trust shall not have any statutory liability in the context of extending this limited service.
The learned Counsel for the shipping and clearing Agents also fairly indicated that his clients may be a persons liable only to a limited context since they do not engage specifically identified workmen or on any permanent basis at all. The engagement is confined to a particular consignment received import or process for export. Only some small number of workers are engaged at a time depending on the number of consignments to be processed by the Sardars agents in a day. There are also a number of agents operating in the Port Trust on any given day. The petitioners cannot even be deemed otherwise as employees of any of the stakeholders here. The problem of the workmen being deprived of.
Let this matter stand adjourned until February 7, 2020 to enable the parties to look into the matter and express their respective views.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties.