15 Access to Justice & Labour Rights

Dr.B.S. Patil

1.  Introduction

The labour jurisprudence has been the part of legal theory from the 19th century. Initially jurisprudence was built around the compensation laws i and this thrust was given by the judiciary through several judgmentsii. However, this initial jurisprudence was considered as biased attempts and unduly favoured employers.

Compared to labour jurisprudence, the jurisprudence of access to justice of the labour has a recent origin. Employers’ and Workmen’s Disputes Act, 1860 was the first legislation which provided speedy and summary disposal of dispute by Magistrates. These Magistrates were appointed specifically to each industry. Therefore, it was the first indication as to the legislative intent that prolonging of labour dispute is against interest of Industry as well as economy of the State. Therefore, legislatures felt that common civil courts should be avoided in labour disputes and notably the summary procedure should be adopted for the early disposal of cases.

Similar law by name Trade Disputes Act, 1929 was enacted, this law not only provided for speedy resolution of dispute, it also provided for prevention of disputes by establishing ad hoc body called ‘Court of Inquiry’. Further, this law introduced Alternative and Amicable Dispute Resolution system in the form of Board of Conciliation. This system encouraged settlement of dispute amicably rather than imposition of third party opinion on the parties.

Soon after independence, the legislatures enacted Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Presently, this Act governs industrial disputes. The Act has provided holistic approach to the industrial disputes, it provides mechanism from prevention to amicable settlement of disputes, from conducting fundamental research to reach root of the cause for dispute to on site mechanism for negotiated settlement, from arbitration as adversarial method to tribunal and labour court as state sponsored adversarial methods.

2. Learning Outcomes

After reading this module the reader would able to

a) Understand the need and meaning of labour jurisprudence on Access to Justice.

b) Obtain a conceptual analysis of nature and impact of industrial dispute.

c) Identify and recognize the various methods of labour dispute resolutions in promoting access to justice.

3. Need for separate remedies

Effective Industrial relations provides Industrial peace. Industrial peace is necessary for better and higher production. Therefore, avoidance of dispute is necessary for stronger national economy, if dispute could not be avoided, it is necessary to resolve those unavoidable disputes at the earliest. Hence, the Labour jurisprudence insisted on separate institutions to deal with labour disputes.

Importance of early resolution of dispute

a) Uninterrupted production: uninterrupted production has three very important functions

b) Reduction in Industrial Dispute: Mechanism for prevention of dispute will ensure reduction in Industrial dispute. Reduced disputes ensures cordial Industrial relations, cordial relation effectively avoid future potential industrial disputes. Therefore, the cordial relation is directly related to less number of disputes.

c) In addition to industrial peace, cordial Industrial relation improves the morale of employees. High moral develops belongingness. It also induces employees to work with high energy and with more dedication.

d) Cordial Industrial Relations discourages unfair practices on the part of both management and unions. Fair and bona fide action leads to formation of mechanisms to solve problems. These mechanisms become effective due to cooperative attitude of the parties, which is ensured by the cordial industrial relations.

e) Industrial peace promotes economic growth and development, effective industrial relations lead to increased efficiency and higher productivity, which ultimately results in improved economic strength.

f) Implementation of statutory provisions: Industrial relations enable implementation of labour welfare legislations to protect and promote the welfare of employees.

4. Remedies under Industrial Disputes Act

The Industrial Disputes Act is the major legislation dealing with resolution of industrial disputes. It has adopted multi-pronged approach towards industrial disputes. The approach varies from resolution of dispute through adjudication to amicable settlement, prevention of dispute through multiparty process to State intervention.

Keeping the multi-pronged approach in mind, the module has been classified the each authority according to its approach to resolve dispute. Initially the discussion will include all the preventive methods followed by inquisitorial methods, cooperative methods and finally adversarial methods.

5.  Role of the Appropriate Government

The industrial dispute is a major concern for the state. Therefore, the Centre and the State have divided the responsibility by defining the Appropriate Government. Sec 2(a) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 provides the big list of industries; the Central Government will be the appropriate Government for all those industries. In addition to the list, it will be the Appropriate Government to all the industries owned and controlled by the Central Government. Similarly for all the industries owned and controlled by State, State Government will be the Appropriate Government. In addition to this classification, the definition also provides residuary power to the State and mentions that for all other industries State shall be the Appropriate Government.

The role of the Appropriate Government is elaborately discussed in sec 10 of I D Act. It is the discretionary role, where the action is dependent on the nature of the dispute. If the dispute is in a public utility services, the AG will take immediate action as it affects society adversely. Similarly AG will decide on the selection of the authority. If the dispute is of national importance or interest of multiple state is involved then the AG will constitute a National Tribunal to deal with the case.

If the case is fit to be conciliated and settled rather than adjudicated, the AG will constitute a Board of Conciliation and refer the dispute.

After referral of dispute, the AG controls the proceedings before the authority. The AG will fix the final date for pronouncement of award or submission of settlement. AG holds the complete control over such award or settlement. The AG has the power to enforce the award, if the award is not in the interest of the society or national interest the power include amending the award with the approval of the legislatures.

Therefore, it is submitted that the role of AG in an industrial dispute is of paramount importance. It helps in early referral and continuous monitoring of AG helps in early disposal of case. The final procedure of submission of award or settlement makes its role even more important.

6.  Inquisitorial Method

This is a prevalent process in civil law countries. In this process the adjudicatory authority plays multiple roles of complaint receiver, investigator, trial conductor and finally adjudicator. These multiple role is played by one person or at least by the same department. This system is faster mode to resolve dispute, however, this process has been criticised for its chances of bias, mainly official bias. The investigative authority will investigate a dispute with intent to punish. On the other hand, the duty of the adjudicator will be to decide the dispute by appreciating the best available evidences. If both roles are intermingled, the adjudicator’s mind would be overshadowed by the investigator’s mind. This will lead to a situation of ‘punishment at any cost’ rather than ‘justice at any cost’.

This inquisitorial system has been adopted by the Industrial Dispute Act with substantial modification. The modification introduced has changed the nature of the authority completely. The closest authority having the inquisitorial power under the Act is Court of Inquiry.

6.1. Court of Inquiryiii

Adjudicatory or conciliatory authority deal with the dispute in hand, however, court of inquiry will address the larger issue of cause for the dispute. Court of inquiry is an invisible authority, whose presence and effectiveness would be felt by the industrial sector at large rather than individual disputing party. The role of court of inquiry is explained through an illustration.

Illustration: if the Automobile industry is facing large scale retrenchment. All the adjudicatory authority will address the dispute relating to right to retrench, right to compensation during retrenchment etc. But it would fail to address the larger issue of cause for such large scale retrenchment; they wouldn’t be able to curtail the retrenchment. In this situation, court of inquiry would conduct its investigation and find out the reason for these large scale retrenchments, which may be like, decline in demand for automobile due to higher bank interest rates, may be due to unaffordable fuel rates or may be due to competition from foreign manufacturers. Based on the findings the court of inquiry will make suggestions for change in the policy or approach, like reduction in bank interest rate, hike in import duty of the foreign cars, reduction of duty on fuel rates could be answer to the raging problem. This changed approach would restore the demand for automobiles; in turn it would address the problem of large scale retrenchment. Therefore, court of inquiry is not body to resolve dispute but the body to root out the cause for the dispute.

Establishment of Court of Inquiry

The Appropriate Government may constitute Courts of Inquiry as the occasion arises. The Court is established by notification in the Official Gazetteiv. The Court may consist of one or more number of independent persons to act as the members of the Courts of Inquiry. Where a Court consists of two or more members, one of them shall be appointed as the chairmanv. The rule for functioning of the inquiry committee clearly states the requirement of quorum. Further it is stated that, committee can function in absence of any members including chairman as long as quorum is formed. However, it cannot function, if chairman has quit his position, in such situation the committee has to wait till the appointment of new chairman.vi Jurisdiction

The court of inquiry is constituted to inquire into any matter appearing to be connected with or relevant to an industrial dispute.vii It is interesting to note that the jurisdiction of the committee do not include the actual industrial dispute whereas, it can look into all connected matters. Therefore, the inquisitorial power of the committee is exercised to deal with the larger issue of inherent defect with the policy of the State. This inquiry will encourage research into policy, new legislations, new approach to the emerging problems etc.

7. Cooperative Method

The Industrial Disputes Act adopted another effective method of resolution of disputes called cooperative method. This method involves tripartite dialogue process, which involves two disputing party and the third independent and impartial person representing the Appropriate Government. This method unlike other methods the parties play dominant role and the authority will be supplementing and facilitating the parties to reach an amicable settlement.

This cooperative method is known as Conciliation. Recently this process received wide recognition from the Indian legal system. The 2002 amendment to Civil Procedure Code made along with conciliation all other Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems as a mandatory part of the litigation process. Few years before, in the year 1996, Arbitration and Conciliation Act was enacted to ensure speedy disposal of commercial disputes by adopting the said methods.

These cooperative methods predominantly adopt discussion or negotiation process. The parties are encouraged by the independent person to engage in discussion and attempt is made to arrive at an amicable settlement, which would ensure win-win situation for both parties. More importantly, such an amicable settlement ensures the trust and faith among the parties. Therefore, these cooperative methods are more suitable for the industrial environment where the effectiveness and profit depends upon peaceful functioning of the industry (Capital and Labour).

7.1. Conciliation

The concept of Conciliationviii is designed in such a way that the conciliation officerix will get into action at the earliest. The Appropriate Government has to appoint suitable number of Conciliation Officers to a specified area or industry x . When a dispute exists or even apprehended the officer is authorised to hold the conciliation in a prescribed manner at his discretion. However, the same discretion of the conciliation officer is sacrificed under certain circumstances. Therefore, the Act has insisted on compulsory conciliation for certain class of industries.

The Industrial Disputes Act has classified the industries into various categories, like, large scale, medium scale and small scale industriesxi. This classification is purely based upon the number of workmen involved with the industry. However, another classification has been introduced based on the importance of the industry to the society and it is called as public utility servicesxii and non-public utility services. The classification is based on the interaction of industry with the day to day life of the society.

Certain industries do not play major role in the life of members of society like, automobile or electronic or diamond cutting industries, whereas industries like, railway, telephone, power supply, water supply are important for day to day life of every member of the society. Therefore, in such public utility services, the Act shows special interest in maintaining industrial peace and mandates the conciliation officer to compulsorily conduct the conciliation proceedings.

Role of the Conciliation Officer

Conciliation officer is a non-adjudicatory authority. He is heading the cooperative process; therefore, the functions and duties of such officer differ substantially from other authorities. The conciliation officer is under the duty to mediate in and promote the settlement of industrial disputesxiii.

The duty to mediate and promote settlement demands certain mandatory functions like,

In addition to such role on the conciliation table the conciliation officer is also under the duty to investigate dispute without delay and any matter affecting the merits and rights in settlement. He is also empowered to exercise all such things to induce parties to come to fair and amicable settlement of the disputexiv.

However, all powers and duties enjoyed by the Conciliation officer has to be exercised within allotted 14 daysxv. Even though it is a time bound proceedings, time could be extended by the Appropriate Government on the recommendation of the conciliation officer and with the agreement of the parties involvedxvi.

7.2. Board of Conciliation

Similar to the Conciliation Officer, the Act provides for modified conciliation process, called Board of Conciliationxvii. It is constituted by the Appropriate Government on the ad hoc basis by issuing a notification in the Official Gazettexviii.

The Board shall consist of a chairman and two or four other members, as the appropriate Government thinks fit xix . The Chairman shall be an independent person and the other members shall be representatives of disputing parties, representing in equal numbers. Chairman would be chosen by the Appropriate Government and other members are chosen on the recommendations from each partyxx. The Board should strive for promoting the settlement of an industrial disputexxi. The Board can function up to 2 months and submit the report.

Reporting Process

The functioning of the Conciliation Officer and Board of Conciliation is supervised by the Appropriate Government. Even though the Appropriate Government is not involved with the process, it definitely exercises control over its consequences.

The conciliation can lead to two different outcomes, if the parties are cooperative and having faith in the process, it would lead to settlement of the dispute. In that case, conciliation officer or the Board is duty bound to report the same to the Appropriate Government. The Conciliation Officer or the Board has to prepare a detailed report on the proceedings and it should be sent along with the memorandum of the settlementxxii.If the process fails, then the conciliation officer shall close the proceedings and as soon as practicable send the full report to the Appropriate Government.

The success report of the conciliation officer provides information as to nature of dispute and terms of agreement which will empower the Appropriate Government to frame suitable policy addressing similar issues. The information in the failure report will help the Appropriate Government to decide on next course of action.

7.3. Grievance Redressal Machinery

The experience in an industrial establishment suggests that the maintaining industrial peace is a challenging task. The industry is a place where the interaction between competing groups is unavoidable and even more the clash of interests is also unavoidable. Therefore, even an insignificant individual grievance can grow into a serious industrial dispute and destroy the industrial peace.

Keeping above threat in mind, Industrial Disputes Act has invented a new ‘on sight’ machinery to deal with the dispute without lapse of time. This new machinery is known as Grievance Redressal Machinery, which was added in the year 2010 through an amendmentxxiii.

Establishment of such machinery is mandatory for all the industries having more than 20 workmen xxiv . Such committee shall consist of equal representative from workmen and employer. The committee shall be headed by representative of employer and workmen on the rotation basis, the committee shall consist of women member. The close scrutiny of law suggests that as far as possible the women shall have representation close to 50% of the total members of the committee.

In case of any individual grievance the workmen or employer can complain to the machinery. They will look into the matter and pronounce its decision. Such decision is appealable to employer. He shall be the final authority under this machinery.

However, establishment of this machinery will not alter the power of the parties to approach the Appropriate Government and refer the matter to any designated authorities or involve in the process of collective bargaining. Therefore, this authority is an alternative option available to the disputing parties.

Industrial establishment (more than 20 workmen)

8.  Preventive Mechanisms

The above discussion mainly dealt with the attempts to resolve the existing disputes.

However, no provision has dealt with the important aspect of prevention of dispute.

The prevention of dispute is more advantageous than resolution of dispute. This act of prevention saves the cordial relation between the parties and helps in maintaining the industrial peace.

In spite of its importance the Act prescribes Works Committee as the only authority designed to prevent the dispute. Like grievance committee it is also and ‘on sight’ machinery.

8.1. Works committee

Establishing the works committee has been made mandatory for all the industries employing more than 100 workmen. Under the instructions from the Appropriate Government, the employer is duty bound to establish such committee.

The composition of works committee shall include the representatives from the employer and workmen in equal number xxv . However, the chairman will be the representative of the employer. The selection of representatives from workmen will be in prescribed manner to ensure representation from all departments as well as representation from all components like, representation from all Trade Unions as well as non-members etc.

The duty of the committee is to promote measures for securing and preserving amity and good relations between the employer and workmen. To achieve the above task, they can comment upon matter of their common interest or concern and endeavour to compose any material difference of opinion in respect of such mattersxxvi.

It is a body which deals with day to day matters of the industry. It has wide jurisdiction as it need not for wait for complaint. It can act suo moto, take the cognizance of the grievance and comment upon it with recommendations. However, the language used in the section suggests that, legislatures have no intent to make such comment binding on the employer. Another drawback with the committee is balance of power; comparatively the employer has more control over the committee as, he has the prerogative to appoint chairman.

Another major drawback is non-cooperation by the trade union members. The members of the Trade Union fear that the works committee will render the trade union defunct, as the scope of the activities of the committee overlap with the activities of the trade unions. This misplaced fear lead to a situation where the works committee has remained the authority on paper and on field effectiveness has remained much desired.

8.2. Adversarial methods

This method involves traditional process of resolution of disputes. The parties are asked to prove their innocence and more importantly prove the guilt of the other party. Basically it is a mud-slinging process. One party try to dirty the other and vice versa attempt is made by the other. The party which is less dirty will be the winner. This method is not suitable for the protection of the industrial cordial relation. In this method, the first casualty will be the trust and faith on each other. It encourages enmity; it encourages the enmity even after completion of litigation.

In spite of its drawbacks the legislatures decided to adopt adversarial process. Therefore, this process should be adopted at unavoidable circumstances and at rarest of rare situations.

The Industrial Disputes Act, prescribes three authorities adopting adversarial method. Labour Court at the District Level and Industrial Tribunal and National Tribunal on the ad-hoc basis. These authorities are approached for demands of wages, allowances, bonus, working conditions etc. even though the rest of the industrial world settle these issues through collective bargaining, sadly Indian industrial arena depends on adversarial or adjudicatory process to resolve such demands. Overdependence on these processes adversely affect the trade union’s relevance and finally it makes the basic rule of industrial relations ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ a reality.

8.3. Labour Courtxxvii:

Labour Court is established to deal with specific disputes mentioned under Second Schedule of the Industrial Disputes Act, which mainly deal with the disputes relating to the standing orders, application and interpretation of Standing orders. It also includes, matters concerning discharge or dismissal of the workmen, including order of reinstatement with benefits and reliefs. Labour Court is established by the appropriate Government by notification in the Official Gazettexxviii.

The Labour Court shall be presided over by a Judge of a High Court or District Judge or an Additional District Judge with the experience for a period of not less than three years, or been any judicial office in India for not less than seven years or the presiding officer of a Labour Court constituted under any Provincial Act or State Act for not less than five yearsxxix.

8.4. Industrial Tribunalxxx:

Industrial Tribunals are known as ‘Tribunals’ under the Act. These are established on ad hoc basis by the Appropriate Government through notification in an official gazettexxxi. The tribunals are authorised to adjudicate on the matters falling under Second and Third Schedule of the Act, like all the matters of Labour Courtxxxii and in addition the Tribunal can also deal with disputes relating to wage fixation including mode of payment, compensatory allowances, payment of bonus, provident fund, gratuity including profit sharing. The schedule also includes retrenchment and payment of retrenchment compensation etc.

The tribunal shall comprise of one person appointed by Appropriate Governmentxxxiii. The presiding officer shall be a Judge of a High Court; or District Judge or an Additional District Judge for not less than three years. In addition to the presiding officer the Appropriate Government may appoint two persons as assessors in advisory capacity.

8.5. National Tribunalxxxiv

The industrial expansion is assisted by revolution in communication as well as transportation. This has helped industries expand from one unit in a city to multiple units in interiors of India. This has led to a situation, where the dispute in one corner of India, will have adverse effect on the industrial peace on other parts of India.

Illustration: the automobile company has a car manufacturing unit at Delhi, similarly it has goods carrier assembling unit in Bangalore. The trade union at Delhi raise a dispute on fixation of wages and mode of payment. They go on strike when the demands were not satisfied. In support of their counterpart in Delhi, the unit in Bangalore go on sympathetic strike,. This sympathetic strike will create economic burden on the employer to agree on the demands of the workers at Delhi.

To address such national emergency the Industrial Dispute Act established National Tribunals. The Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette constitute one or more National Industrial Tribunals for the adjudication of industrial disputes. National tribunals are established to address the disputes which involve questions of national importance or that the disputes concerns industrial establishments situated in more than one Statexxxv.

The National Tribunal shall consist of one person appointed by the Central Government, who is a Judge of a High Court. In addition the Central Government may, appoint two persons as assessors in advisory capacity.

8.6. Disqualifications of presiding officers

The presiding officers of the Labour Court, Tribunal and National Tribunal are disqualified to hold the office if he is not an independent person or has attained the age of sixty-five yearsxxxvi.

8.7. Powers and Functions of Adjudicatory Authorities

The adjudicatory authorities are under the duty to decide the case on merits. To establish the merits the authorities need appropriate powers to examine the documents and witnesses concerning the dispute. Therefore, the Industrial Disputes Act has authorised these adjudicatory authorities to adopt any such procedure as the concerned authority may think fitxxxvii. The presiding officers also possess the right to enter the premises occupied by any establishment to which the dispute relates. This right of entry is restricted in two aspects, one, such entry is only for the purpose of inquiry and secondly only after giving reasonable noticexxxviii . The presiding officer can appoint one or more persons as assessors. These assessors will advise the presiding officer in discharge of his dutiesxxxix. The presiding officers enjoy the additional power of grant of cost, including the power to determine the cost, by and to whom and to what extent and subject to what conditions such costs are to be paid.xl

In view of justice, the most important power enjoyed by these authorities are the powers of Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908). Following powers are specifically mentioned

(a)  Enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;

(b)  Compelling the production of documents and material objects;

(c)  Issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses;

(d)  All other powers of the Court enjoyed during the judicial proceedings. 8.8. Arbitrationxli

Arbitration is another adversarial method of resolution of dispute. However, this process is inherently different from the other adjudicatory authorities. All other authorities like, Labour Court, Tribunal, National Tribunal are established by the State, whereas, Arbitration is the creation of the parties. The parties agree to appoint an independent and impartial person as a private judge and the parties expect such private judge to conduct the inquiry and hearing and come up with the final judgment called ‘award’. This process provides more freedom to the parties to choose judge as well as to choose the process of resolution of disputexlii.

If parties are willing to refer the dispute to Arbitration then they have to make an application to the Appropriate Government to that effect. The application shall be accompanied by the written agreement as to willingness to refer the dispute to Arbitration and the reference shall include arbitration agreement mentioning the name of the private judge (arbitrator)xliii. The parties shall send the copy of the same to Conciliation Officerxliv. The same should be published within a month in the Official Gazette for the general information.

8.9. Arbitration Agreement

The drafting of the Arbitration Agreement involves one basic rule, where the parties can appoint more than one Arbitrator, but the number of Arbitrators should not be even and shall be drafted in a prescribed mannerxlv. Once the arbitrator is appointed he is duty bound to conduct the inquiry, hearing and submit the signed award to the Appropriate Governmentxlvi.

If Arbitration Agreement provides for even number of arbitrators; it shall make provision for appointment of additional presiding officer by name ‘Umpire’. This authority will not be involved in the decision making. However, if the arbitrators are evenly divided on the outcome, then the umpire will pass his opinion on the rights of the partiesxlvii. The opinion of the umpire would be final and binding on the partiesxlviii.

8.10. Role of the Appropriate Government

The decision of the parties to refer to Arbitration is a major achievement as the parties to dispute has kept channel for communication open. This achievement has to put to optimum utilisation. The parties have established an authority, the scope and jurisdiction of the authority is fixed by the arbitration agreement i.e. parties to the dispute. If the same award could be extended beyond the parties and to all the interested persons, the arbitral award would bring major area of dispute to final settlement. The law provides the same opportunity to the Appropriate Government to expand the jurisdiction of the arbitrator.

To do the same, first the State has to satisfy itself that the persons making the reference represent the majority of each party. If the Appropriate Government is satisfied then immediately a notification could be issued to the other employers and workmen who are not parties to the arbitration agreement but are concerned with the dispute. The notice will make them to participate in proceedings mandatorily and have to make use of the opportunity of presenting their case before the arbitrator or arbitratorsxlix.

Once the Appropriate Government issues notice to join arbitration, it gets power to issue another notification to prohibit the continuance of any strike or lock-out in connection with such disputel . Therefore, Arbitration provides ample opportunity to resolve dispute with minimum friction and adverse impact on the industry.

9.  Outcome of the Proceedings

The Industrial Disputes Act adopts different modes of dispute resolution. As a result these different mechanisms lead to different outcomes. The Industrial Disputes Act has recognised two major outcomes of these proceedings, Award and Settlement.

Award means an interim or a final determination of any industrial dispute or any question relating to such dispute. The authorities authorised to pass an award are Labour Court, Industrial Tribunal or National Industrial Tribunal and Arbitrationli. Therefore, award is an outcome of adversarial process and it is a decision of a Presiding Officer which is binding on the parties to the dispute.

Whereas ‘settlement’ is a written agreement arrived at by the disputing parties in the course of conciliation proceedings conducted by either Conciliation Officer or Board of Conciliation. It also includes a written agreement between the disputing parties arrived at otherwise than in the course of conciliation proceedinglii.

Therefore, settlement are of two kinds, settlement during conciliation proceedings and otherwise than in conciliation proceedings. Second kind will become binding only on the signatory of the settlement. However, the binding nature could be extended by sending the copy of such settlement to the Appropriate Government and publishing it in official gazette.

10. Summary

The vision of free India has made industry as a backbone of Indian economy. The industrialisation was carried out with a zeal. However, industrialisation brought its own challenges like, migration, exploitation, human rights violations etc. to overcome these challenges and to protect the rights of the workers; the new industrial jurisprudence was developed. Along with protection of workers’ rights, the challenge included to maintain industrial peace. In case of unavoidable dispute, there was a need to solve the problem early and amicably. To meet this challenge, the legislatures came up with Industrial Dispute Act.

Instead of referring the industrial dispute to regular civil court, the Act preferred to create special authorities. These authorities will exclusively deal with the industrial disputes and unnecessary delay could be avoided. Similarly all disputes need not be adjudicated, therefore, the Act provides for different modes of resolution of disputes.

The Act provided for special authorities with greater variations. The attempt to prevent an industrial dispute is made by the works committee as well as Grievance Redressal Machinery. Then attempt will be made to resolve the dispute amicably through Conciliation. Later the AG will step in and look into urgency and refer the matter to appropriate authority including, Labour Court, Tribunal, National Tribunal or even Board of Conciliation.

References:-

• O.P.Malhotra, The Law of Industrial Disputes, Vol 1 and 2, lexisnexis Butterworths, sixth Edition, Delhi, 2004

• P.L.Malik, ‘Industrial Law’, Eastern Book Company, 16th Edition, Bangalore,

• V.G.Goswami, ‘Labour and Industrial Laws’ Vol 1 and 2, Central Law Agency, 9th edition, 2011, Allahabad

• S.N.Mishra, ‘Labour and Industrial Laws’, Central Law Publications, 25th Edition, 2009, Allahabad.

• Avtar Singh and Harpreet Kaur, Introduction to Labour and Industrial Law’, LexisNexis, 3rd edition, Gurgaon, Haryana, 2014

• S.C.Shrivastava, ‘Industrial Relations and Labour Laws’, Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 6th revised edition, Noida, 2013.