Assignment for Labour Law

and Industrial Relations

Submitted to:

Dr. Apoorva Trivedi

1. What are the Labour Laws with IR Implications for Futuristic India?

• Labour Law is the body of laws, regulations, administrative rulings, and precedents,
which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, labourers and the organizations. It
deals with many aspects of relationships between trade unions, employers and their
employees.
• The final goal of the Labour laws is to reduce the differences between the employer and
the employee, which leads, in Industrial Growth and Growth of a nation.
• Generally, labour law covers:
§ Industrial relations – certification of unions, labour-management relations, collective
bargaining and unfair labour practices;
§ Workplace health and safety;
§ Employment standards, including general holidays, annual leave, working hours,
unfair dismissals, minimum wage, layoff procedures and severance pay.

• There are two broad categories of labour law.

First, collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer
and union.

Second, individual labour law concerns employees' rights at work and through the contract
for work.

• Labour rights have been integral to the social and economic development since the
industrial revolution.
• Indian labour law refers to laws regulating labour in India.
• Traditionally, Indian governments at federal and state level have sought to ensure a high
degree of protection for workers, but in practice, form of government and because labour
is a subject in the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution.

Indian Labour law is closely connected to the Indian independence movement, and the
campaigns of passive resistance leading up to independence. While India was under colonial
rule by the British Raj, Labour rights, trade unions, and freedom of association were all
suppressed. Workers who sought better conditions, and trade unions who campaigned
through strike action were frequently, and violently suppressed. After independence was won
in 1947, the Constitution of India of 1950 embedded a series of fundamental Labour rights in
the constitution, particularly the right to join and take action in a trade union, the principle of
equality at work, and the aspiration of creating a living wage with decent working conditions.

• 1921 Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Strike

• 1926 Binny Mill Strike
• 1928 South Indian Railway Strike
• Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929)
• 1974 railway strike in India
• Great Bombay Textile Strike in 1982
• Harthal in Kerala 2012

Industrial Relation is defined as relation of Individual or group of employee and employer

for engaging themselves in a way to maximize the productive activities.

• Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field

that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations
between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations and the
state.
• The newer name, "employment relations" is increasingly taking precedence because
"industrial relations" is often seen to have relatively narrow connotations.
• Nevertheless, Industrial Relations have frequently been concerned with employment
relationships in the broadest sense, including "non-industrial" employment relationships.
• This is sometimes seen as paralleling a trend in the separate but related disciple of human
resource management.

• In the words of Lester, “Industrial relations involve attempts at arriving at solutions

between the conflicting objectives and values; between the profit motive and social gain;
between discipline and freedom, between authority and industrial democracy; between
bargaining and co-operation; and between conflicting interests of the individual, the
group and the community.
• The term ‘Industrial Relations’ comprises of two terms: ‘Industry’ and ‘Relations’.
“Industry” refers to “any productive activity in which an individual (or a group of
individuals) is (are) engaged”.
• By “relations” we mean “the relationships that exist within the industry between the
employer and his workmen.”
• The term industrial relations explains the relationship between employees and
management which stems directly or indirectly from union-employer relationship.
• The field of industrial relations looks at the relationship between management and
workers, particularly groups of workers represented by a union.
• Industrial relations are basically the interactions between employers, employees and the
government, and the institutions and associations through which such interactions are
mediated.

LABOUR LAW WITH IR IMPLICATIONS

• The Labour Code on Industrial Relations Bill, 2015

The NDA Government proposed to merge the 44 central labour legislation with five
codes, relating to Industrial Relations, Wages, Social Security, Health and Safety,
Welfare and Working Conditions
• Strengthening collective bargaining by trying to determine sole bargaining agent for
negotiations
• Decentralization of IR is seen in terms of the shift in consideration of IR issues from
macro to micro and from industry to enterprise level
• Earlier IR concerned with trade unions, management and government but now consumers
and community.

Health and safety

The Workmen's Compensation Act 1923 requires that compensation is paid if
workers are injured in the course of employment for injuries, or benefits to
dependants. The rates are low.
• Factories Act 1948, consolidated existing factory safety laws
• The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Act, 2013 that seeks to protect and provides a mechanism for
women to report incidents of sexual harassment at their place of work.
2. Define the Government of India Structure and Constitutional Provision
for Labours.

STRUCTURE of INDIAN GOVERNMENT

• Modelled after the Westminster system for governing the state, the union government is
mainly composed of the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, in which all powers
are vested by the constitution in parliament, the prime minister and the supreme court.
• The President of India is the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the Indian
Armed Forces whilst the elected prime minister acts as the head of the executive, and is
responsible for running the union government.
• The Parliament is bicameral in nature, with the Lok Sabha being the lower house, and
the Rajya Sabha the upper house.
• The judiciary systematically contains an apex supreme court, 24 high courts, and
several district courts, all inferior to the supreme court.
• The basic civil and criminal laws governing the citizens of India are set down in major
parliamentary legislation, such as the civil procedure code, the penal code, and
the criminal procedure code.
• Similar to the union government, individual state governments each consist of executive,
legislative and judiciary.
• The legal system as applicable to the union and individual state governments is based on
the English Common and Statutory Law.
• The terms "union government", "central government" and "Bhārata Sarakāra" are often
used officially and unofficially to refer to the Government of India.
• The Government in India or the central or the union government is divided into three
main sections namely the executive, legislature and the judiciary
• The executive consists of President, Vice-President and Cabinet members. They pass the
laws made by the Legislature
• The legislature includes Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha alongwith Prime Minister. They
make the laws.
• The Judiciary includes the Supreme Court of India. They solve the conflicts between the
Executive and the Legislature.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION FOR LABOUR

• Art 14 of the Indian Constitution explains the concept of Equality before law .
• The concept of equality does not mean absolute equality among human beings which is
physically not possible to achieve.
• It is a concept implying absence of any special privilege by reason of birth, creed or the
like in favour of any individual, and also the equal subject of all individuals and classes to
the ordinary law of the land.
• As Dr. Jennings puts it: "Equality before the law means that among equals the law should
be equal and should be equally administered, that like should be treated alike.
• The right to sue and be sued, to prosecute and be prosecuted for the same kind of action
should be same for all citizens of full age and understanding without distinctions of race,
religion, wealth, social status or political influence”.
• It only means that all persons similarly circumstance shall be treated alike both in the
privileges conferred and liabilities imposed by the laws.
• Equal law should be applied to all in the same situation, and there should be no
discrimination between one person and another.
• As regards the subject-matter of the legislation their position is the same.
• Thus, the rule is that the like should be treated alike and not that unlike should be treated
alike.
• Under the Constitution of India, Labour is a subject in the Concurrent List where both the
Central & State Governments are competent to enact legislation subject to certain matters
being reserved for the Centre.
§ Regulation of labour and safety in mines and oil fields
§ Trade Unions; industrisl and labour disputes
§ Industrial disputes concerning Union employees
§ Social Security and insurance, employment and unemployment
§ Union agencies and institutions for "Vocational ...training..."
§ Welfare of abour including conditions of work, provident funds, employers
"invalidity and old age pension and maternity.