Hello sir, greetings of the day.
As per your query, yes, you are correct with your understanding that, the definition of industrial establishment does not cover medical representatives of a pharma company but covers the employees working in the factory of pharma company as factory is covered under the definition of industrial establishment. As it was held in Adyanthaya and others Vs. Sandoz (India) Ltd. and others, (1994), that when an employee essentially performs functions of sales representative in a pharmaceutical company, the duties that are attached to his post are neither managerial nor administrative. The sales representative does not supervise any person rather only handles is his own affairs reporting to management only in respect of quantification of sales and the bench held that a medical representative cannot be treated to be a workman to fall within Sec.2(s) of the I D Act. Also in Burmah Shell Oil Storage And Distribution Company Of Indian Ltd. S. In Burmah Shell Management Staff Association and Others, the apex court held that, it is difficult to put a medical representative as a workman under the ambit of the term in Section 2(s) as his duty only consists of introducing and canvassing the sale of products.
Hope this answers your question.
Regards
Nirali Nayak
Law Student
