Industrial Disputes ACT, 1947

 Objective:

This legislation is designed to ensure industrial peace by recourse to a given form of procedure and machinery for investigation and settlement of industrial disputes. Its main objective is to provide for a just and equitable settlement of disputes by negotiations, conciliation, dedication, voluntary arbitration and adjudication instead of by trial of strength through strikes and lock-outs. As State Governments are free to have their own labour laws, States like UP, MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra have their own legislation for the settlement of disputes in their respective states. U.P. legislation is known as U.P. Industrial Disputes Act, while others have Industrial Relations Act more or less on the lines of ‘The Bombay Industrial Relations Act, of 1946.

Definition:

As per Section 2(k) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, an industrial dispute is defined as any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between workmen and which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour, of any person.

This definition includes all the aspects of a dispute. It, not only includes the disagreement between employees and employers but also emphasizes the difference of opinion between worker and worker. The disputes generally arise on account of poor wage structure or poor working conditions. This disagreement or difference could be on any matter concerning the workers individually or collectively. It must be connected with employment or non-employment or with the conditions of labour.

The Industrial Disputes Act, of 1947 recognizes certain rights to the employees employed by the employer. For the purposes of the Industrial Disputes Act, of 1947, a workman has been defined as under:

Workman means any person (including an apprentice) employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, and for the purposes of any proceeding under this Act in relation to an industrial dispute, includes any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched in connection with, or as a consequence of, that dispute, or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that dispute.

Appropriate Government: Government, body, or organization controlling the establishment

Average pay: means the average of the wages payable to a workman–

(i) in the case of the monthly paid workman, in the three complete calendar months,

(ii) in the case of the weekly paid workman, in the four complete weeks,

(iii) in the case of the daily paid workman, in the twelve full working days, preceding the date on which the average pay becomes payable if the workman had worked for three complete calendar months or four complete weeks or twelve full working days, as the case may be, and where such calculation cannot be made, the average pay shall be calculated as the average of the wages payable to a workman during the period he actually worked;

Award: means an interim or a final determination of any industrial dispute or of any question relating thereto by any Labour Court, Industrial Tribunal or National Industrial Tribunal and includes an arbitration award made under section 10A.