Industrial Relations Strategy

The strategy is based on legislation, workers right, formation and recognition of union, their right and duties in the context of maintaining good Industrial Relations, role of Industrial Relation Commissions and restraining unfair labour policies. You are aware that the erstwhile Govt. of India (Under British Rule) enacted Trade Dispute Act 1929 for settlement of Industrial Disputes. This act empowered the Government to intervene, wherever it considered fit. Government also had power to appoint Conciliation Board and court of enquiry for promoting settlement of industrial disputes. This act was, however, not used for settlement of disputes. It was used only for settlement of wages only.

Provincial Legislation
The first act enacted was the Bombay Trade Dispute (and Conciliation) Act, 1934 and its objective were to promote industrial peace. Bombay Industrial Dispute Act, 1938, was enacted which had following features: Compulsory recognition of union by their employers. Giving the rights to workers to represent their case through their union representative or where there is no union through their elected representative. Certification of Standing Order vides which the conditions of employment are defined. Setting up of Industrial Court Prohibition of strike/ lockout in certain conditions.

This act was also replaced by Bombay Industrial Relations Act 1946. In the same year the central government enacted Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. The basic aim of introducing these acts was to maintain good industrial relations. Now we will discuss Industrial Dispute Act 1947.

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE ACT, 1947

The law relating to Industrial relations in India is contained in the Industrial Dispute Act, which came into operation on 1st April 1947. The I.D. Act, 1947 was enacted with the following objective; Experience of working of Trade Dispute Act has revealed that its main defect is that while restrain have been imposed on the rights of strike and lockout in public utility services, no provision has been made to render the proceedings institutable under the Act for settlement of industrial dispute, either by referring to Board of Conciliation or to a Court of Inquiry conclusive and binding on either parties to the dispute. The defect was overcome during Second World War by enacting Defence of India Rule under rule 81-A. After the war

was over, The Central Government enacted Industrial Act, 1947 replacing Trade Dispute Act 1929 with subsequent amendments. The preamble of the Act reads An Act to make provision for the investigation and settlement of industrial disputes and for certain other purposes. It may be regarded as a supplement to the Indian Contract Act, 1872, whose aim is to regulate the contractual relationship of master and servant in ordinary sense. The I.D. Act provides for settlement of industrial disputes through conciliation and adjudication. The act makes a distinction between dispute arising in public utility services and those in other industries. The procedure and machinery provided under the I.D. Act have been modified from time to time in the light of actual working of the provisions, the decisions of the judiciary and in influence of bipartite and tripartite settlement.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS POLICY DURING PLAN PERIOD.

The Industrial Relations Policy during the plan period is, in fact, the continuation of some of the earlier efforts made in this direction of marinating industrial pace. The First Plan Period The plan encouraged mutual settlement, collective bargaining and voluntary arbitration. It observed, It is incumbent on the state to arm itself with legal powers to refer disputes for settlement by arbitration or adjudication, on failure of efforts to reach an agreement by other means. For the sake of uniformity, the plan recommended the setting up of norms and standards to govern the relations and dealings between employers and employees and for the settlement of industrial disputes through tripartite bodies, viz., The Indian Labour Conference, the Standing Labour committee and the Industrial Committee for particular industry. The Second Plan Period The second Plan envisaged a marked shift in the industrial policy consequent on the acceptance of the socialistic pattern of society as the goal of planning. The I.D. Act was amended in 1956. The Labour Appellate Tribunal was abolished and old three-tier system of labour courts, industrial tribunals and national tribunals was brought in force. The Third Plan Period Suggested no major changes.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS MACHINERY

The present machinery for the settlement of industrial comprises: Conciliation Arbitration Adjudication

The salient features of the above arrangement may be divided in the following manner for the purpose of our discussion: Collective agreements Conciliation Voluntary arbitration Adjudication

Collective Agreement
Since independence the trade unions have been growing and agreement with employer has become very common. The changing attitude of employer and emergence of new generation of employees have also helped for arriving at collective agreement. The collective agreement so arrived has been of three types viz.
Agreement, which have been drawn up after direct negotiations between the parties and are purely voluntary in character for the purpose of their implementation, Agreement which combine the elements of voluntaries and negotiated by the parties but registered before a conciliator and Agreement, which require legal status when the matter is sub judice. compulsion i.e. those

CONCILIATION
Statutory provisions for the conciliation machinery was made for the first time in the Trade Dispute Act 1929 which provided setting up of Board of conciliation by the government for settling industrial dispute. The Trade Dispute Act was amended in 1938 to provide for appointment conciliation officers. The ID Act 1947 and other state enactment authorize the government to appoint conciliation officers with the duty of mediating in and presenting the settlement if industrial disputes. The appropriate Government may also appoint Board of Conciliation consisting of one Chairman and four members. Conciliation is necessary in all disputes in public utility services and optional in other industrial establishments. To expedite conciliation proceedings the time limit has been prescribed 14 days in case of conciliation officers and two months in case of board of conciliation. An agreement arrived at before the conciliation officer is binding on both the parties. In case the conciliation fails the next stage may be compulsory adjudication or the parties may be left to their own choices. There is mixed reaction to the working of the conciliation machinery, both workers and employer have expressed dissatisfaction over certain specific are of functioning such as: -

Delays involved The casual attitude of one or the other party Lack of adequate background in the officer himself for understanding the major issues.

VOLUNTARY ARBITRATION
Voluntary arbitration in India was introduced and experienced for the first time in the textile industry of Ahmedabad as far as back 1920 under the initiative and guidance of Mahatma Gandhi who said we should not resort to law courts but should have dispute settled by private arbitration. It was followed in other industries also. Voluntary arbitration as a method of resolving industrial conflicts was recommended in the plans. Even the I.D. Act was amended to make a provision (Section-10A) for joint reference of industrial disputes to voluntary arbitration. To make voluntary arbitration more acceptable to the parties and to coordinate efforts for its promotion Government has recently set up a National Arbitration Promotion Board with a tripartite composition. Its main task was to evolve principles, norms and procedure for guidance to arbitrators and parties. It was expected that the formation NAPB will achieve its objectives but the progress was made by NAPB was slow which can be attributed to the following factors: Easy availability of adjudication in case of failure of negotiations Dearth of suitable arbitrators who command the Confidence of both the parties Absence of recognized unions, which could bind the workers to common agreements. Legal obstacles The fact that in law no appeal was competent against an arbitrators award. Absence of simplified procedure to be followed in Voluntary arbitration and Cost to the parties particularly to workers

ADJUDICATION
Adjudication means a mandatory settlement of Industrial Dispute by labour courts or Industrial Tribunals under the provisions of Industrial Dispute Act or any other corresponding state statues. This is the ultimate real remedy for settlement of unresolved disputes. The judiciary machinery under I.D. Act 1947 comprises of Labour Court, Industrial Tribunals and National Industrial Tribunal. Courts are to perform the functions as laid down in Section 7 of the Act and they are:-

The propriety or legality of any order passed by an employer under the standing order The application and interpretation of standing orders Discharge or dismissal of workmen including re-instatement of or ground of relief to wrongfully dismissed Withdrawal of any customary concession or privilege Illegality or otherwise of strikes or lock specified in the third schedule which fall within the jurisdiction of the Industrial Tribunal -outs and all matters other than those.

Any matter listed in Second and Third Schedule of the I.D. Act can be referred to industrial tribunal/national industrial tribunal; the authority to constitute the latter is of the Central Government. These tribunals have the position to entertain appeals against the decision of the Registrar/Labour Commissioner/Labour Court/Wage Board constituted under the respective Acts. The adjudication machinery has exercised considerable influence on several aspects of conditions of work and labour management relations but it also having certain criticism such as: Considerable delay Adjudication is sometimes discriminatory as the power rest with the government Adjudication is quite expensive because in case of failure the employee may prefer writ petition in High Court/Supreme Court. Prohibit collective agreement Failed to achieve industrial peace

Strike/Lockout
Strike means cession of work by body of persons employed in any industry acting in combination or concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding. Lockout means the closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employee to continue to employ any number of persons by him. The definition of strike postulates the following ingredients: Plurality of worker. Cession of work or refusal to continue work Acting in combination or concerted action under common understanding.

We have already explained that strike or lockout is the last resort for settling of disputes and should be avoided.

Recognition of Unions
One of the burning problems in Industrial Relations facing our trade union, government and employer for a pretty long time is to evolve a satisfactory and commonly acceptable way to settle the competitive claims of rival union for being declared as bargaining agent. The problem is as soon as one union gets recognition, rival unions steps in. This makes collective bargaining difficult. What is done by one union is sought to be undone by the other union. The need for recognition of union has been realized as is evident from the provisions of Bombay Industrial Act and certain other states legislations like Madhya Prade sh and Rajasthan. The need for recognition of union and provisions for recognition was stressed in the Second Five Year Plan. Because of desire to go slow on legislation, recognition was provided for, on voluntary basis, under the Code of Discipline adopted at the 16th session of Indian Labour Conference held in May 1958 at Nainital. It laid down certain criteria such as: Where there is more than one union, a union claiming recognition should have been functioning for the last one year The membership of union should cover 15% of the workers. It should be counted if the members have paid subscription for 3 month in last six months. A union may claim to be recognized union for an industry on local area if it has 25% of the workers. When a union has been recognized there should be no change in its position for two years. A representative union for a n industry in a area should have right to represent the workers in all establishment of the industry, if union of workers in particular establishment, it should have 50% of the workers as members. In case of Trade Union Federation, which is not affiliated to any four of the central organizations of labor, the recognition shall be dealt separately. Only union, which observed Code of Conduct, would be entitled to recognition

There are serious problems in verification of membership. There are certain suggestions in this regard either by the employee or employers

Rights of recognized and other unions

The recognized union should be given opportunity to have collective agreements. The rights of the recognized unions can be summarized as under: To raise issue and enter into collective agreements To collects membership and subscription To put up a Notice Board in the premises, and right to display its development. To hold discussions with representative of employees. To meet employer or its representative to sort out grievances. To inspect, by prior, arrangement any place where its member is employed. To nominates its representative on grievance committee To nominate its representative on statuary or non-statuary body, like bipartite committee, welfare committee, house allotment committee etc.

Industrial Labour Commissions

The total aspect of having Industrial Relation Committee is only for the purpose of suggesting ways to have good industrial relations and watch the interest of the workers and employers.