Gupta of Liberty Shoes sentenced for unfair labour practices

The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Karnal has

sentenced Adarsh Gupta, owner of Liberty Enterprises, a subsidiary of footwear maker Liberty Shoes, to six months of imprisonment for shutting their Gharunda-based unit in 2008. This had lead to the unemployment of 1,500 workers. The act has been termed illegal and unfair towards labourers.

The sentencing comes after a group of workers appealed in the Haryana Labour Court. This led to the Labour Department registering challans and referring the matter to the CJM. As an outcome of the complain Karnal CJM, Amit Kumar punished Gupta and asked him to pay a Rs 1,000 fine under the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947. Gupta, who is the Executive Director of Liberty Shoes and one of the promoters of the company, would appeal in the Sessions Court against the judgement.

As per labour laws, if a company employing over 100 workers wishes to close down a unit, then it must take prior permission from the state labour department. In this case, Liberty Enterprises had not taken necessary approvals before closing the unit. As per sources 900 regular and 600 contractual Liberty workers are fighting a legal battle to recover wages, terminal dues and gratuity, over 350 workers are taking legal help to recover wages. An application for terminal of dues -- including gratuity and compensation -- from the 735 retrenched workers is also pending with the Haryana labour department.