Pattern of Industrial Relations in India

Industrial relations by itself is a very dynamic subject. It has been realized that the industrial
relation system has brought about a large number of changes and thereby it has always
created complex situations for the organisations or the management or the employees or the
union. There are certain basic features of the Indian industrial relations systems which are
different from those in the other developed and developing countries. The special features
of the industrial relations systems are:

1. The society, the system in general assumes that the unions are there only to play a
negative role. The employers as well as the management assumes that the unions only
play a militant role and they are basically created to fight for the members and create
trouble for the employers. In other words workers union is a hurdle in the progress
of the organisation.
2. The management does not like the basic existence of the trade unions because they
assume that the constructive and progressive decisions of the management are made
ineffective by the unions or timely implementation cannot be done because of the
unions. Many times it is assumed that the welfare of the workers do not take place
because of the Unions, which is true to some extent when they go on strikes or use go
slow techniques.
3. When one union becomes very strong the management tries to create another union
and when there are multiple unions in the industry no one union can function to their
full potential and they become ineffective. More than one union means less finds, less
bargaining power, comparatively less members and infighting on the rise. Multiple
trade unions means small size unions, poorly organized and above all Indian trade
union has a very peculiar problem and that is of outside union leaders who do not
understand the real or practical problems of their workers or members of the union,
more than the interest of their members or industry they have their own political
interest.
4. Opposite to weak and unorganized employees is organised and highly united
employers. In India the employers are highly organized and are capable of influencing
the country’s wages, welfare and labour policies. The employers in India can take
advantage of their weak unions and inter union rivalry for their own benefit. The
 peculiar feature of the Indian employers is that they are more authoritarian’s which
blocks the path of communication between the employers and the employees or trade
unions which help in aggravating the problems which otherwise could be sorted out
through dialogue.
5. Indian industrial relations are highly dynamic, they have changed from time to time
and will further undergo a change. One good example is that when industrialization
took place many changes were seen like replacement of human labour performing
heavy task by machine labour, improvement in the working conditions, mass scale
production, division of work, specialization, reduction in the skills of the workers and
increase in the mobility of the workers. India also adopted liberalized economic
policy, where India saw large scale production, economies of scale, downsizing,
automation, rationalization, cost cutting policies, maintenance of quality standards,
super .specialization, co-operation in management and unions, VRS and CRS.
Industrial conflicts and the militant approach of the Unions have also undergone a
change. A major change has been seen in the employer employee relationship.
6. The involvement of the government central and state who influence the industrial
relations system. Tripartite consultation, is an important feature of India’s industrial
relations system. The Indian Labour Conference (ILC) and the Standing Labour
Committee (SLC) are the two main forums of tripartite consultation. The main
objectives of tripartite consultation are as follows:
1) To promote uniformity in labour legislation.
2) To lay down the procedure for settlement of industrial disputes
3) To consider matters of importance to both the management and labour. The government
state or Centre plays an important role in the dispute resolution machinery for achieving
industrial peace as a third side along with the management and labour. The government
is instrumental in forming the legal system and has rendered useful service in declaring
the awards and judicial prouncements. The government is also instrumental in setting
various norms or standard guidelines on several critical issues of dispute between
management and labour.

To conclude, the industrial relations system over a period of time has become more and
more complicated than what it was in earlier times. The modem industrial society is getting
more and more complex and the problems are ever changing with time. The most important
feature of the employer - employee relationship is that it is highly dynamic and with
technological developments it will continue to change in the future. In years to come the
industrial relations system will see management and employees come to terms under
economic reforms and dynamic changes in the organisational environment. They will jointly
share the responsibility of organisations survival and progress. The industrial relations
system will undergo a transformation to cope up with the challenges of high tech industries,
growing competition and globalization.