LAW RELATING TO

INDUSTRIAL
DISPUTE
Law relating to Industrial Disputes
Meaning of industry; machinery for the prevention
and settlement of industrial disputes. Provisions
relating to strikes, lay off, retrenchment, lock out,
closure and transfer of undertakings.
Industrial Dispute

Sec 2(k)- Any dispute or difference between employers and employees,between employer and
employer,between employee and employee,which is connected with the employment or non employment
or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labor,of any person

• Conflict between people

Industry

Sec 2(A) of ISD Act 1947,a right has been given to the individual workman himself to raise an
industrialdispute with regard to termination,discharge,dismissal or retrenchment of his
service,eventhough no other workman or any trade union of workman raises it or is a party to the
dispute

Activities involved are:

???
Workman ?????

Dispute to become an industrial dispute????

Types of industrial dispute
◦ Interest dispute
◦ Grievance dispute
◦ Intrepretation disputes
◦ Unfair disputes
◦ Recognition dispute
Impact of Industrial disputes
◦ Low prodn
◦ Disruption in life
◦ Huge losses
◦ Creates law and order problems
◦ Affect the economy
Causes of industrial disputes
◦ Psychological
◦ Economic
◦ Working conditions
◦ Denial of legal rights
◦ Govt machinery
◦ Other causes
Role of ILO on labor dispute matters
◦ Provides exert opinion
◦ Carries out research and studies
◦ Trains people in solving labor problems
◦ Organises regional conferences
India and ILO
◦ COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS ON APPLICATION OF CONVENTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
◦ FACT FINDING AND CONCILIATION COMMISSION ON FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
◦ COMMITTEE IN FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

RESULTS IN:-
◦ Development of textile industry
◦ Training within industry programme
◦ Assistance to a National Apprenticeship Council
◦ Development of handicrafts and cottage industry
Impact of International standards on Indian
labor legislation
Conditions of work
 Employment of children and young person
 Employment of women
 Health,safety and welfare
 Social security
 Industrial relations
Machinery for Maintanence of Good Industrial
Relations
 Legislative machinery
a) Trade Union Act 1926
b) Industrial Dispute Act 1947
c) Industrial Employment (standing orders) Act 1946
d) Workmen Compensation Act 1923

 Administrative Machinery
a) Works committee
b) Joint management councils
c) Conciliation officers
d) Board of conciliation
e) labour courts
f) Industrial tribunals
g) National tribunals
h) Cout of inquiry
i) Provision for voluntary arbritration
 Industrial dispute solving techniques

A.Preventive machinery(voluntary or non statutory)

1. Workers participation in management
2. Collective bargaining
3. Grievance procedure
4. Tripartite bodies
5. Code of discipline
6. Standing orders
B. Settlement machinery(Statutory) 4. Bipartite committee
1. Power of appropriate government 5. Conciliation
2. Adjudication 6 Tripartite body
7. Mediation
◦ By labor court
8. Investigation
◦ By industrial tribunal 9. Negotiation
◦ By National Tribunal  Willingness to Give and Take
3. Voluntary arbritration  Avoidance of Unfair labor practices
Do’s and Don’t’s of Negotiation
DO’S
• Do seek more than you plan to receive
• Do negotiate in private not through the media
• Do start with easy issues
• Do resolve deadlock by stressing past progress
• Do let both side win otherwise the other side may retaliate
DON’T’S
• Do not settle too quickly
• Don’t violate the confidence
• Do not seek unwanted changes
• Don’t make your best offer first
• Sont let the top management actually participate in face to face negotiation
Forms of strikes
◦ Section 2(q) of Industrial dispute Act,1947, strike means a cessation of work by a body or persons employed in any industry
acting in combination, or a concerted 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.

Causes
1. Wage disputes
Impacts of strikes
1. Emotional tension
2. Working arrangements and conditions
2. Unemployment
3. Dispute on working hours
3. Loss of output
4. Undeserved punishments
4. Loss of man hours
5. Hardness of code of conduct
5. Violence
6. Sympathetic strikes
6. Terrorize workmen and degrade morals
Forms of strikes
a) Officilal and unofficial
b) General and particular
c) Go slow
d) Quickie
e) Sit down
f) Sympathetic
g) Hunger
h) Lightning and wildcat
i) Work to rule
LOCK-OUT
Section 2 of ID Act 1947,lockout means the temporary closing of a place of employment or the
suspension of work ,or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons
employed by him.

◦ Weapon in the hands of workers to put pressure on workers

◦ Warns to keep away from the work
◦ Outcome of industrial dispute
◦ Resist the collective demand of workmen
Gherao
Encirclement of the manager /official to criminally intimidate him to accept the demands of workers

◦ Primitive method used in England in early days of trade unions

◦ Workers force the employer to remain confined/restricted in their offices for hours or even days
◦ Not financial pressure, but physical coercion
◦ Endangers industrial harmony, create problem of law and order
Picketing
◦ Workers are placed at the factory gate to discourage others
◦ Standard practices when a union strikes an employer
◦ Workers parade with banners to inform public bout demand,dispute with employer and to show the list of
support from outside
◦ Designed to interfere with business and to pressurize the employer to comply with union’s demands
◦ Insulting others and even block others physically to stop entry to the factory premises
Lay off
Sec 2(kkk),lay off means the failure, refusal or inability of an employer to give employment to a workman on ac of
a. Shortage of resources (power and materials)
b. Accumulation of stocks
c. Any natural calamities
d. Breakdown of plant and machinery
e. Any other connected reasons
Sec 25C- entitlement of statutory compensation to the laid off workers
◦ Workman laid off for> 45 days during a period of 12 months??
◦ For claiming compensation-
 Not a badly workman/casual workman
 His name must be borne in the muster roll
 Must have completed not less than 1 yr continuous service
 Rate of compensation shall be = 90% of total basic wages and DA

BADLI WORKER??

◦ 240 DAYS continuous service and his name is borne on the muster roll of the firm,he becomes entitled for lay off compensation

◦ Lay off compensation not payable ????

Retrenchment
Permanent removal from muster roll while layoff is a temporary measure

◦ Section 2(OO),Retrenchment means termination of 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 doesn’t include:
a. Voluntary retirement
b. Retirement on superannuation
c. Termination of service(illness)
d. Termination of service(non renewal of contract)
Precedence of retrenchment
◦ One month notice period indicating reason
◦ Paid equivalent to 15 days average pay
◦ Section 25(G) lays down the principle of LAST COME FIRST GO

Re employment of retrenched workmen

◦ Section 25(H)
Compensation for transfer of undertaking
◦ Section 25(FF)
◦ Every workmen who has been in continuous service for not less than one year in that undertaking
immediately before transfer shall be entitled to notice and compensation

Workmen not entitled:

a. Service interrupted by transfers

b. Service terms and conditions after transfer are not less favourable to the workmen
 Closure
• Sec 2(CC), The permanent losing down of a place of employment or part
thereof

• Notice atleast 60 days in advance to the date on closing the place of

employment

• Employee not less than 1 yer service compensation equals to 15 days pay for
every completed year of continuous service or part thereof in excess to 6
months
Reason for closure
◦ Due to financial difficulties
◦ Accumulated indisposed stocks
◦ Expiry period of lease or license granted
◦ Exhaustion of minerals in the case of mining operations

SECTION 25(O) ??
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AUDIT
◦ Investigating,analytical,comparative process
◦ Systematic search
◦ For achieving organizational goals

Systematic verification of job analysis, employee’s morale,participative management,welfare and social

security ,safety and health,industrial relation,trade unionism and disputes and the resolutions.

Types
a. Internal
b. external
Advantages
◦ Provides image of HR dept
◦ Reduces cost of IR functions
◦ Motivate employees and boost their morale
◦ Provides smooth adoption of changing mindset
◦ Provides systematic job analysis and sound performance appraisal syaytem
◦ Serves as a check on the activities of the IR dept
◦ Finds out problems of workers and solves them
Industrial relations research
◦ Multipurpose tool
◦ Better Solutions to the problem
◦ Members who keep continuous study on problems
◦ Managers along with trade union discuss on issues
◦ Includes
-trade unionism
-participative management
-collective bargaining
-industrial disputes
-workers health ,safety and social security