Analysis and Examination of the Employment Relations in India

This article analyses the employment relations law in India and examines the application and suitability of these laws that are still valid after several decades of their enactment. Employment relations in India are governed by labour legislation passed as early as 1923. The Workmen's Compensation Act 1923 was passed to deal with the growing complexity of industry, increasing use of machinery and consequent danger to the life and limbs of workmen. The very object of this Act is to provide adequate compensation to workmen who sustain personal injuries by accidents arising out of and in the course of employment. The Industrial Disputes Act 1947 was passed just before the British left India. It was enacted largely to support the British effort to maintain supplies and essentials for its troops fighting the Second World War. The then government thought it necessary to refer all disputes to adjudication, that is settlement of disputes by tribunals, compulsorily and ban strikes simultaneously so that production could be maintained at all levels and at all times. During the period of Second World War, it was to serve the interest of the British Government that, the Defence of India Rules were amended and Rule 81A was introduced through which all powers of employment and dispute resolution came to be concentrated in the hands of government. This stunted the growth of the law and reduced the value and importance of trade unions. Rule 81A of the Defence of India Rules was introduced to ensure that peace on the industrial employment front was maintained at all costs. Unfortunately, the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 was a carbon copy of these very rules. What was done as a mere war front measure came to be the structure for employment relations for a new and independent India for all times to come. The Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act 1946 was passed with the aim of making employers in industrial establishments formally to define conditions of employment. The Trade Unions Act 1926 was passed to regulate the relations between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen or between employers and employers.