Delhi High Court: Airline Pilots Are ‘Workmen’ Under Industrial Disputes Act
The Delhi High Court in King Airways Vs Captain Pritam Singh has ruled that airline pilots are “workmen” under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, regardless of how high their salary may be. The Court clarified that what matters is the nature of work performed, not the pay scale.
A Division Bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar gave this ruling while dismissing appeals filed by King Airways. The airline had challenged labour court orders directing it to pay unpaid salaries and other dues to three of its pilots.
The dispute involved Captain Pritam Singh, Manjit Singh and N.D. Kathuria, who had approached the Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court in Delhi for recovery of unpaid salary, incentives for extra flying hours and other benefits. The Tribunal had ruled in their favour, which was later upheld by a single judge of the High Court.
King Airways argued that pilots, especially those designated as Captains or Pilot-in-Command, perform supervisory duties over crew members and therefore do not fall under the definition of “workman” in Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act. The airline also claimed that since pilots earn salaries above the statutory limit, they should be excluded from labour law protection.
Rejecting these arguments, the High Court held that pilots primarily perform skilled and technical work, with their main duty being the operation and flying of aircraft. The Court observed that merely using the term “supervise” in aviation rules does not automatically make a pilot a supervisory employee under labour law.
The Bench noted that there was no evidence to show that pilots actually exercise managerial or supervisory control over crew members in practice. It also made it clear that salary is irrelevant in deciding workman status unless it is proven that the employee performs only supervisory functions.
Calling the salary argument a “red herring”, the Court concluded that pilots squarely fall within the definition of “workman” under the Act. As a result, the appeals filed by King Airways were dismissed, and the labour court’s orders in favour of the pilots were upheld.
