Private companies can employ own workers for head loading work, no prior experience required for registration: HC

KOCHI: The High Court has clarified that private companies can hire their own workers for head loading work and they are not required to have experience. In his order, Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas directed that if the owner and worker of the establishment apply, they should be registered as porters under the Headload Workers Act.

The order was issued on a petition filed by Kollam KEK Cashew owner E Mansoor and three workers against the rejection of the workers' application for registration.

The Assistant Labour Officer rejected the application of the workers from Kollam stating that they had not worked as load workers and do packing work in the company. The workers' appeal to the district labour officer was also rejected. Subsequently, they approached the High Court.

The court observed that the reasons given by the Assistant Labour Officer for rejecting the application were irrational and childish.
The court quashed the order of the Assistant Labour Officer rejecting the application and directed to register plaintiffs as load workers and issue the card within 30 days.

The court said

The Labour Officer only needs to check if the applicant has the capacity to do the load and if the employer is willing to register. Rule 26A does not require the applicant that he or she has previously done load work to apply for headload worker registration. Do not consider whether there are other registered workers within the organization. If the registration is given only to those who work in the headload work, there will be a situation where no new registrations are given.