Ceylon Mercantile Union v. Ceylon Fertilizer Corporation – sllr 1985 volume 1 page 401

In the case between Ceylon Mercantile Union and Ceylon Fertilizer Corporation, the court addressed whether the Ceylon Fertilizer Corporation should be considered the employer of certain workmen despite an intermediary contractual relationship with the Hunupitiya Labour Co-operative Society. The central issue concerned whether the actual facts of control, supervision, wage determination, and integration of workmen into the Corporation’s functions established a contract of service with the Corporation itself. The court examined the extent to which the Corporation exercised authority and whether the intermediary’s role was substantive or merely administrative. It was recognized that factual integration and practical control take precedence over formal contractual labels in identifying an empl