Industrial Dispute Act

1947

Introduction• Industry:

means any systematic activity carried on by co-operation between an employer and his workmen for the production, supply or distribution of goods or services with a view to satisfy human wants or wishes.

• Dispute: To question the truth or validity of, a

disagreement , a debate.

Does not include* Any Agricultural Operation * Hospitals* Educational, research or training institutions* Institutions owned or managed by organisations

managing charitable or social service* Khadi or Village industries* Sovereign Functions of the Government* any activity being a profession practised by an

individual or body of individuals(less than 10)

Industrial Dispute Act, 1947

• Under Section 2 (k)o It means “any dispute or difference between employers and employers,o employers and workmen, oro workmen and which is connected with- the employment or non-employment the terms of employment, or with the conditions of labour, of any person. 

History

• Employers’ and Workmen’s Disputes Act, 1860

• Trade Disputes Act, 1929• Rule 81-A (Defense of India Rules)• Industrial Dispute Act, 1st April - 1947

Objective

• To ensure fare terms to the workmen

• To prevent dispute between employers and employees

Classification of Industrial Disputes

Industrial Dispute

Interest Dispute

Grievance/Rights Dispute

Unfair Labor Practices

Recognition Dispute

Interest Dispute:• It arise out of deadlocks in the negotiations

for a collective agreement.• They relate to the determination of new

terms and conditions of employment for general body of worker.

• Originates from the demand of improvement in wages, job security, fringe benefits, etc.

Grievance / Rights Disputes:

• It’s a protest against an act of management that is considered to violate the rights of workmen.

• Discipline and dismissal, working time, over-time, rights of supervisor

Unfair Labor Practice:• Discrimination on grounds that workers

are trade union members, participated in trade union activity.

• To interfere, restraint the workers when they exercise their rights to organize, join or assist a union, refusal to bargain collectively.

Recognition Dispute:

• When the employer’s organization refuses to recognize a trade union for the purpose of collective bargaining.

Strike• a cessation of work by a body of

persons employed in any industry acting in combination or a concerted refusal, or a refusal under a common understanding, of any number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment.

STRIKES

Primary Strikes

Stay Away

i) Sit Downii) Stay-iniii) Tool-down

Token Or Protest

Lighting

Picketing & Boycott

Gherao

Secondary Strikes

Sympathy

Others

1. General2. Particular3. Political4. Bandhs

Types of Strikes• Primary Strikes: Are aimed against the employer

with whom the dispute exists.

Stay Away Sit Down Stay-in Tool-down Token Or Protest Lightening Picketing & Boycott Gherao

Secondary Strikes

In which the pressure is applied not against the primary employer with whom the primary workers have a dispute but against some third person who has good trade relations with him.

Types of Strikes

LockoutLockout means –• Closing of a place of employment or• Suspension of work or • Refusal by an employer to employ any

number of persons employed by him.• Lock-out is legitimate weapon in the

hands of the employer for forcing the workers to accept his demands & to withdraw the demands made by them.

Strikes v/s Lock-Out

By workmanRefusal to work or accept employment.

Under common understanding or acting in concert.

By employer

Temporary closure

Refusal to continue to employ the person

employed

PenaltyIllegal strike:- imprisonment for one month or fine of Rs.50 or both.

Illegal Lock-out:- imprisonment for one month or fine of one thousand rupees or both.

LayoffMeans the failure, refusal or inability of an employer on account of shortage of

Coal, power or raw materials or Breakdown of machinery Or natural calamity or for any

other reason

Badli Workman• If the workman is a “Badli” workman

or a casual workman, he would fall outside the ambit of Section 25C.

• However, if a “badli” workman has completed 1 year of continuous service in the industrial establishment, he will be treated as a permanent workman for all purposes

RetrenchmentThe termination by the employer of the service of a workman for any reason whatsoever,otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action, but does not include –

• Voluntary retirement of the workman• Retirement of the workman on reaching the age of

superannuating.• Termination of the service of a workman on the ground of

continued ill-health

Conciliation Officers

Boards Of Conciliation

Court Of Inquiry

Tribunals

National Tribunals

Authorities

Conciliation Officers•  The appropriate Government may, by notification in

the Official Gazette, appoint such number of persons as it thinks fit, to be conciliation officers,

• Charged with the duty of mediating in and promoting the settlement of industrial disputes.

• A conciliation officer may be appointed for a specified area or for specified industries in a specified area or for one or more specified industries and either permanently or for a limited period.

*Board of Conciliation

* A Board shall consist of a chairman and 2 or 4 other members, as the appropriate Government thinks fit.

* The chairman shall be an independent person

* And the other members shall be persons appointed in equal numbers to represent the parties to the dispute.

* A Board, may act in spite the absence of the chairman or any of its members or any vacancy in its number

*Provided that if the appropriate Government notifies the Board that the services of* The chairman or* Any other member have ceased to be

available the Board shall not act until a new chairman or member, as the case may be, has been appointed.

*Cont…..

* A Court may consist of: * One independent person or * Of such number of independent persons as the appropriate Government may think fit

* And where a Court consists of two or more members, one of them shall be appointed as the chairman.* The chairman have ceased to be available* The Court shall not act until a new chairman has been appointed.

*Court Of Inquiry

* He is an Officer in Indian Legal Service in Grade III with 3yrs experience in it.* He is or had been a Deputy Chief Labour

Commissioner (Central) or Joint Commissioner of State Labour Dept has*A Degree in Law*At least 7 yrs experience in Labour Dept including *3 yrs as a Conciliation Officer

Tribunal

*National Tribunal

* The Central Government may, constitute one or more National Industrial Tribunals for the adjudication of industrial disputes which, in the opinion of the Central Government, * involve questions of national importance or * Are of nature that more than one State are likely to be interested in, or affected by, such disputes.

• A National Tribunal shall consist of one person only to be appointed by the Central Government.

• A person shall not be qualified for appointment as the presiding officer of a National Tribunal unless he is, or has been, a Judge of a High Court

• The Central Government may, appoint two persons as assessors to advise the National Tribunal in the proceeding before it.

*Cont…..

*AMENDMENT ACT, 2010 – SALIENT FEATURES

* Definition of ‘Appropriate Govt. amended.* Direct access to the workman to the Labour

Court or Industrial Tribunal in case of disputes arising out of Section-2 A of the Act.* Empowering Labour Court or Tribunal to execute

Awards, Orders of Settlements arrived at by Labour Court or Industrial Tribunals.* Expanding the scope of qualifications of

Presiding Officers of Labour Courts or Tribunals.

* Establishment of Grievance Redressed Machinery in every industrial establishment employing 20 or more workmen for the resolution of disputes arising out of individual grievances.

* The Amendments have been brought into force w.e.f. 15.09.2010

*Cont…..