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HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
Introduction
Trade Unionism is an outcome of the factory system.
Based on labour philosophy-united we stand, divided we fall.
Industrial Revolution changed the traditional outlook in the labour
management relationship.
With the introduction of modern factory system, personal
relationship between employer and employee disappeared and has
given rise to many social and economic evils.
Need to devise an effective means to contact employers and to
bargain with them.
Formation of trade unions has provided an ideal solution.
Labour Movement in India is about fourteen decades old.
It may be traced from 1860s.
Six Periods
1. pre-1918
2. 1918-24
3. 1925-34
4. 1935-38
5. 1939-46
6. 1947 and since
Pre-1918 Period
1860-labour agitation in Bengal led by Dinbandhu Mitra.
Protest against the hardship of the cultivators and plantation
workers.
Indigo Commission
Report reflects gros-sest cruelties perpetrated by foreign planters
with the aid and under the protection of laws framed by the British
Government specially for this purpose.
1875-Sarobji Shapuri in Bombay made a protest against poor
working conditions of workers at that time.
The deplorable conditions of workers were brought to the notice of
the Secretary of State of India.
1875-Appointment of first Factory Commissions
Enactment of Factories Act, 1881
Pre-1918 Period
Appointment of another Factory Commission in 1884.
First Labour Association in India
1890-Bombay Mill Hands Association First Labour assosiation was
formed as Mr. Narayan Lokhande as its President.
It started a labour Journal (Dinbandhu) in order to propogate effective
views of their own.
Several labour organisations were formed after 1890
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in India and Burma-April
1897 registered under companies Act
Printers Union, Calcutta , 1905
Bombay Postal Union, 1907
Kamgar Hityardhak Sabha and Service League , 1910
Pre-1918 Period
Important Strikes
1895 Ahmedabad Mill Owners Association
Reason for strike:- substitute a fortnightly wage system for a
weekly one which was in force ever since 1896.
1896 Strike in Jute industries in Calcutta
1897 After plague epidemic, the mill workers in Bombay went
on strike for payment of daily wages instead of monthly
payment of wages.
1903 Employees of press and machine section of Madras
Government went on strike for overtime work without payment.
Pre-1918 Period
1905 Workers of the Government of India Press, Calcutta-
1. Non-payment for Sunday and gazetted holidays;
2. imposition of irregular fines;
3. low rate of overtime pay; and
4. the refusal of authorities to grant leave on medical
certificate.
1907 Workers of Eastern Railway Workshop at Samastipur Increment
of wages
1907 Bombay Postal Union
1907 Indian Telegraph Association
1908 Workers of textile operatives in Bombay
1918-1924
Best described as the era of formation
of modern trade unionism.
Most significant feature of this period was that the ALL INDIA
TRADE UNION CONGRESS (AITUS) started in 1920 with the
Principal reason to decide the labour representative for ILOs first
annual conference.
Lala Lajpat Rai , the President of Indian National Congress, became
the first President of AITUC.
Formation of large no. of trade unions:-
Madras Labour Union
Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association
Indian Seamens Union
Calcutta Clerks Union
All India Postal and RMS Association
1918-1924
Factors responsible for the formation and
growth of trade unions:-
1. Economic conditions of workers
2. Political conditions prevailing in the country
3.The workers revolution in Russia which established the first workers
State in the World had its own influence.
4. World wide unrest in the post war period.
5. Setting up of the ILO in 1919.
1925-1934
Split in AITUC
Ideological dissension in labour movement began within few years of
the AITUC coming into being.
Three distinct ideological groups in the trade union organisation-
Communist led by M.N.Roy & Shripat Amrut Dange
Nationalist s led by Gandhiji & Pandit Nehru
Moderates led by N.M.Joshi & V.V.Giri
1929-National Trade Union Federation (NTUF)-Moderates-N.M.Joshi
1931- Red Trade Union Congress-Commnist-M.N.Roy
1925-1934
However the act makes it clear that the trade union may either be formed
by workmen or employers.
prison, or
who are employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity or
Badli workman Workman who is provided with a Badli Card and who
is employed in place of another workman who is temporarily absent and
whose name is borne on the muster roll of the factory.
Area in which the trade union operates
All the unions should be governed by the provisions of the Act and the
Rules framed there under in a similar manner.
Prevent fraud, embezzlement or deception practiced upon members by
designed unscrupulous persons.
Second view is supported by First National Commission of Labour.
The commission is of the view that the registration of trade unions should
be made compulsory because it will bring the application of same
standards of obligations to all unions and would result in qualitative
improvement in their organization and functioning.
Recognition of Trade Union by the Employer
funds
Maintenance of list of members, sufficient
Section 13
Every registered trade union shall be a body corporate by
the name under which it is registered , and shall have
perpetual succession and a common seal with a power to
acquire and hold both movable and immovable property
and to contract, and shall by the said name sue and be
sued.
If at any time after the date of the application, but before the registration of
the TU, if half of the members who made the application ceased to be
members of the TU or have given notice in writing to the Registrar
dissociating themselves from the application. (Section 4)
Mode of Registration
Section 7. Power to call for further particulars and to require
alteration of name.
Registrar may call for further information for the purpose of satisfying
himself that the application complies with section 5 or 6.
If the name under which a TU is proposed to be registered is identical
or so nearly resembles with any other existing TU, the Registrar shall
refuse to register the Union until such alteration has been made
Section 8.Registration.
The Registrar, on being satisfied that the Trade Union has complied
with all the requirements of this Act in regard to registration, shall
register the Trade Union.
Mode of Registration
Section 8.Registration.
The Registrar, on being satisfied that the Trade Union has complied
with all the requirements of this Act in regard to registration, shall
register the Trade Union.
TUA does not prescribe any time-limit for the grant or refusal of
registration.
Problem:
Unions in the prescribed manner together with the constitution and rules
of the said union .
No action was taken under section 7 and 8 on the application for over 3
months .
The Union sent many reminders but no reply was made from
Registrars office.
Finally, the Union preferred a writ petition before the Patna High Court,
its registration.
The application was rejected by the Registrar of Trade Unions on the
ground that the Union was for all practical purposes the same union
which has been registered and, therefore, be declared unlawful under
section 16 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1908.
Against this finding, the appeal was preferred before the Calcutta High
the duties of the Registrar were to examine the application and to look
at the objects for which the union was formed. If those objects were
objects set out in the Act, and if those objects did not go outside the
objects prescribed in the Act and if all the requirements of the Act, and
the Regulations made there under had been complied with it was his duty
to register the Union.
Indian Express October,
2011.
Even as the strike at Maruti's Manesar plant
has ended, the Ministry of Labour and
Employment (MoLE) has learnt a lesson from
it. It is working on amending the Trade Union
Act, 1926, to make the process of registration
of a trade union more transparent. The
amendment Bill would be placed in the next
session of Parliament.
The right to register a trade union was at the
Mukund Iron Steel Works Ltd. V. V.V. Deshpande, (1986) Lab.IC 1612
(Bombay)
Bombay High Court held that the High Court may exercise its powers
under Article 226 of the Constitution where the cancellation of the
registration of the trade union had been effected improperly.
Gujarat Rajya Kamdar Sabha v. Registrar under the Trade Unions Act,
(1999)LLR285
Gujarat High Court quashed the orders of Registrar where no show cause
notice was given before cancellation of registration as required under
Section 10.
Appeal- Section 11
Act confers right of appeal on persons aggrieved against an order of the
Registrar
1. Refusing to register a trade union; or
2. Withdrawing the certificate issued after registration; or
2. Cancelling the certificate of registration.
Appellate Forum
The appeal may be filed
a. Where the head office of the trade union is situated within the limits of a
Presidency Town to the High Court;or
b. Where the head office is situated in an area, falling within the jurisdiction
of a Labour Court or an Industrial Tribunal, to that court or Tribunal; or
c. Where the head office is situated in any other area to such court, not
inferior to the court of an Additional or Assistant Judge of a Principle
Civil Court of original jurisdiction, as the appropriate government may
appoint in this behalf for the area.
Appeal
Powers of the Appellate Court
The Appellate Court may either
1. Dismiss the appeal; or
2. pass an order directing the Registrar to register trade unions
and to issue a certificate of registration under Section 9; or
3. Set aside the order for withdrawal or cancellation of the
certificate as the case may be.