Objectives

The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 makes provision for the investigation and settlement of industrial disputes and for certain other purposes. It ensures progress of industry by bringing about harmony and cordial relationship between the employers and employees. Definitions of the words ‘industrial dispute, workmen and industry’ carry specific meanings under the Act and provide the framework for the application of the Act.

The main objective of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is to provide machinery for investigation and settlement of industrial disputes and matters connected therewith to ensure speedier resolution of industrial disputes and to create harmony and amity in the industry.

Scope and Coverage

This Act extends to whole of India. The Act was designed to provide a self-contained code to compel the parties to resort to industrial arbitration for the resolution of existing or apprehended disputes without prescribing statutory norms for varied and variegated industrial relating norms so that the forums created for resolution of disputes may remain unhampered by any statutory control and devise rational norms keeping pace with improved industrial relations reflecting and imbibing socio-economic justice. This being the object of the Act, the Court by interpretative process must strive to reduce the field of conflict and expand the area of agreement and show its preference for upholding agreements sanctified by mutuality and consensus in larger public interest, namely, to eschew industrial strife, confrontation and consequent wastage.

The Act came into force on 1st April, 1947 and at present extends to whole of India covering all type of industries includirig factories, mines, plantations, commercial and industrial establishments irrespective of number of people employed therein.

Administration

The appropriate government in respect of Central' Government Undertakings which have been created under the Act of Parliament, banking or insurance company, mines, oil fields, cantonment board, major ports,.is the Central Government and inrelation to any other industry, it is the State Government which is responsible for administration and providing machinery for resolution of industrial disputes. The responsibility of the appropriate government includes appointment of Conciliation Officers, appointing the Presiding Officer of Labour Court and Industrial Tribunal, reference of the industrial disputes, publication of awards, etc.

Important Definitions

Some of the most important definitions as per the Act are as under :

Section 2(j)    : "Industry" means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft, or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen.

Section 2(k)    : "Industrial Dispute" means any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between workmen and workmen which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the term of employment or with the conditions of labour, of any person.

Section 2(1)    "Lockout" means the temporary closure 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.
Section 2(oo)    "Retrenchment" means termination of service by the employer of a workman for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action. It does not include voluntary retirement, superannuation, termination of service as a result of non-renewal of contract of employment or termination on grounds of ill-health.

Section 2(q)    : "Strike" means 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.

Section 2(s)    : "Workman" means any person including a trainee employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory - work for hire or reward, whether the term 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 the dispute, but does not include any sum person who is employed in Police or Armed Forces or who is employed mainly in. managerial or administrative capacity or who being employed in supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding Rs. 1,600 per month or exercises either by nature of the duties attached to the office or by reason of the power vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial nature.

Wages

“Wages” means all remuneration capable of being expressed in terms of money, which would, if the terms of employment, expressed or implied, were fulfilled, be payable to workman in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment, and includes: (i) such allowance (including dearness allowance) as the workman is for the time being entitled to; (ii) the value of any house accommodation, or of supply of light, water, medical attendance or other amenity or of any service or of any concessional supply of foodgrains or other articles; (iii) any travelling concession,

but does not include:

(a) any bonus;

(b) any contribution paid or payable by the employer to any pension fund or provident fund or for the benefit of the workman under any law for the time being in force;

(c) any gratuity payable on the termination of his service.

(d) any commission payable on the promotion of sales or business or both. [Section 2(rr)]

Appropriate Government” means:

(i) in relation to any industrial disputes concerning any industry carried on by or under the authority of the Central Government or by a railway company or concerning any such controlled industry as may be specified in this behalf by the Central Government or in relation to an industrial dispute concerning a Dock Labour Board established under Section 5-A of the Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1948 or the Industrial Finance Corporation of India Limited formed and registered under the Companies Act, 1956, or the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation established under Section 3 of the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 or the Board of Trustees constituted under Section 3-A of the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1948 or the Central Board of Trustees and the State Boards of Trustees constituted under Section 5-A and Section 5-B, respectively, of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 or the Life Insurance Corporation of India established under Section 3 of the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 or the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited registered under the Companies Act, 1956, or the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation established under Section 3 of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961, or the Central Warehousing Corporation established under Section 3 of the Warehousing Corporation Act, 1962, or the Unit Trust of India established under Section 3 of the Unit Trust of India Act, 1963, or the Food Corporation of India established under Section 3, or a Board of Management established for two or more contiguous States under Section 16 of the Food Corporations Act, 1964, or the Airports Authority of India constituted under Section 3 of the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994, or a Regional Rural Bank established under Section 3 of the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 or the Export Credit and Guarantee Corporation Limited or the Industrial Reconstruction Corporation of India Limited, the National Housing Bank establishment under Section 3 of the National Housing Bank Act, 1987 or the Banking Service Commission established under Section 3 of the Banking Service Commission Act, 1975, or an air transport service, or a banking or an insurance company, a mine, an oil-field, a Cantonment Board or a major port, the Central Government, and

(ii) in relation to any other Industrial Dispute, the State Government. [Section 2(a)]