PESHAWAR, Aug 27: The Peshawar High Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by a leading private tobacco company against the scheduled referendum in its factory and the provincial government decision of not declaring the said factory as seasonal establishment.

A bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani also dismissed a writ petition filed by a former CBA (collective bargaining agent) union of the factory challenging the registration of another trade union, Muttahida Workers Union (MWU), in the factory.

Phillip Morris Pakistan (Pvt) Limited and Karkun (Workers) Labour Union contended that the registrar of the trade union had erred in registering MWU as it mostly comprised seasonal employees.

Abdur Rauf Rohaila, lawyer for MWU, said at the time of registration of second trade union, the registrar was not bound to associate the employer but only required his personal satisfaction after holding the inquiry. He added that a factory registered under Section 2(J) of the Factories Act 1934 could not be declared seasonal factory under Section 4(2) of the Act.

The bench ordered the holding of the referendum as per its schedule on Tuesday.

Hundreds of workers attended the proceedings and the courtroom was filled to capacity.

Brief facts of the case are that Lakson Tobacco Company around 30 years ago established Green Leaf Thrashing Factory at Ismaila (Swabi) where they purchased raw green tobacco from growers as well as from their own fields and brought it into its factory for processing, sorting, separating and classification mainly for more than six months and spreading over nine to 10 months.

The establishment manufactured high quality cigarettes, which were marketed, sold and supplied throughout the country. It had more than 150 permanent workers and over 1,000 seasonal workers who were most skilled and employed for more than 20 years.

The unit has been purchased around two years ago by Phillip Morris Pakistan and it was planning to terminate and lay off more than 1,000 seasonal workers. The said company approached the provincial government for declaration to be a seasonal factory under Section 4(2) of the Factory Act.

Meanwhile, it also approached registrar trade union for the cancellation of MWU registration on the plea that all the members of the said union were seasonal, therefore the registration had wrongly been granted.

The previous CBA union also approached the registrar trade union for filing complaint to the labour court for cancellation of registration of MWU. The application of Phillip Morris Pakistan was rejected by the provincial government on the ground that if this request was accepted, it would open a Pandora’s Box for other similar tobacco companies. The application of the labour union was also rejected.The company and Karkon (workers) Labour Union approached the high court through separate writ petitions.

Their counsel contended that since admittedly all members of MWU were seasonal workers and though some permanent workers had joined it, by virtue of operation of law, they could not be considered as workers of the company.

It was also argued that the new company was to reorganise its management and therefore, it had decided not to call previous seasonal workers for the ensuing tobacco season and therefore, the registration was liable to be cancelled.

The counsel said the referendum scheduled to be held today (Aug 28) be declared to be redundant.