industrial employment act 1946

1. The Industrial Employment
(Standing Orders) Act, 1946
 Object of the Act
 Scope and Application
 Definitions
 Submission of Draft Standing Orders
 Certification of Standing Orders
 Appeal
 Interpretation of Standing Orders

2. Importance
 No uniform practice governing the conditions of service of
workers
 No clarity of rights and obligations of the employer
 in respect of terms of employment, friction/dispute between
management and worker
 Demand for statutory service conditions raised by Bombay
Cotton Textile workers in 1927-28
 The Bombay Industrial Disputes Act of 1938 for the first time
provided for statutory standing orders.
 The Labour Investigation Committee emphasized the workers’
right to know the terms & conditions of employment

3. Object of the Act
 To require employers to define the conditions of work
 To brig about uniformity in terms and conditions of
employment
 To minimise industrial conflicts
 To foster harmonious relations between employers
and employees.
 To provide statutory sanctity and importance to
standing orders

4. Scope and Application
 Extends to the whole of India
 To every establishment wherein 100 or more
workmen are employed
 On any day preceding twelve months
 Once applicable to the establishment then it
continuous if the no. of workmen employed gets
reduced to less than 100
 The appropriate Govt. can exempt any
establishment from any of the provisions of the Act

5. Continuous…..
 It applies to railways, factories, mines, quarries, oil-
fields, tramways, motor services, docks, plantations,
workshops, civil construction and maintenance
works.
 The Act has 15 sections and a schedule.
 It applies to all the skilled or unskilled, manual,
supervisory, technical, clerical work.
 The apprentices are also included.
 The persons employed mainly in a
managerial/administrative/supervisory capacity
drawing wages exceeding Rs.1600 are not covered.

6. Important Definitions
 Appropriate Government: State Government,
Central Government.
 Certifying Officer: means Labour
Commissioner/Regional Labour
Commissioner and includes any other officer
appointed by the appropriate Government,
by notification in the Official Gazette to
perform such duties.
 Employer: owner of the establishment

7. Industrial Establishment
 A factory defined in Section-2 (m) of the
Factories Act, 1948
 A railway defined in Railways Act, 1939
 Establishment defined in the Payment of
Wages Act, 1936
Standing Orders
• The term ‘Standing Orders’ means rules
relating to matters set out in the Schedule of
the Act.

8. Schedule
Matters to be contained in the Standing Orders
 Classification of the workmen : temporary, casual, apprentices
 Manner of intimating to workmen
 Shift working
 Attendance and late coming
 Conditions of, procedure in applying for, and the authority
which may grant leave and holidays
 Requirements to enter premises by certain gates and liability to
search
 Closing and reopening of sections of the establishments,
temporary stoppages
 Suspension or dismissal for misconduct
 Acts and omissions which constitute misconduct

9. Submission of Draft Standing Orders
 Obligatory on the part of an employer or a group of
employers to furnish 5 copies of the draft standing
orders
 Within 6 months of the application of the Act the
employer shall submit the draft standing orders
 Copies to be given to the certifying officer
 Draft has to enclose the prescribed particulars of the
workmen
 The status and name of the trade unions to be given.
 It has to take all matters set out in the Schedule.

10. Procedure for Certification of Standing
Orders
 Copy of draft standing orders to be sent to trade
union/workmen
 Opportunity of hearing to trade union/workmen to be
provided
 Certification
 Certified standing orders have the force of law and
the violation of any provision shall be taken action
 Standing orders to be applicable to all present and
future workmen
 Standing orders must confirm the model standing
order

11. Conditions for certification of Standing
Orders
 Must compile as per the Model Standing Orders
 Fairness of the provisions shall be verified by the Certifying
Officer
Appeal
Any employer, workman, trade union aggrieved by the order of the
certifying officer may, with in 30 days from the date on which
copies of the certified standing orders sent to them
Date of Operation of the Act
On the expiry of 30 days of the certification given by certifying
officer
Or
After the expiry of 7 days of the decision given by appellate
authority.

12. Payment of Subsistence allowance
 Payment of subsistence allowance by an
employer to a workman who has been
suspended by the employer and his
investigation is pending
 the allowance shall be at the rate of 50% of
the wage for the first 90 days of suspension
 The allowance shall be 75% of the wage
after 90 days if the investigation is delayed
due to employer

13. Penalty
 Any employer fails to submit draft standing
orders or modifies it, shall be punishable with
fine which may extend to Rs. 5000.
 In case of continuance of the above offence,
fine up to Rs.200 per every day.
 Any contravention of Standing Orders is
punishable by Rs. 100 fine .

14. Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020
It has raised the threshold for the requirement of a standing order to over 300
workers which implies that industrial establishments with up to 300 workers will not be
required to furnish a standing order.
Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 makes it obligatory for employers
of an industrial establishment where 100 or more workers are employed to clearly
define the conditions of employment and rules of conduct for workmen, by way of
standing orders/services rules and to make them known to the workmen employed.
 The new provision for standing order will be applicable for every industrial
establishment wherein 300 or more than 300 workers are employed or
were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months.
 It was earlier suggested by the Standing Committee on Labour which also
suggested that the threshold be increased accordingly in the Code
itself and the words ‘as may be notified by the Appropriate Government’
be removed because reform of labour laws through the executive route is
undesirable and should be avoided to the extent possible.

15. Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020
It also introduces new conditions for carrying out a legal strike. The
time period for arbitration proceedings has been included in the conditions
for workers before going on a legal strike as against only the time for
conciliation at present.
No person employed in any industrial establishment shall go on strike without a
60-day notice and during the pendency of proceedings before a Tribunal or
a National Industrial Tribunal and sixty days after the conclusion of such
proceedings.
At present, a person employed in a public utility service cannot go on strike
unless they give notice for a strike within six weeks before going on strike or
within fourteen days of giving such notice, which the IR Code now proposes
to apply for all the industrial establishments.
It has also proposed to set up a re-skilling fund for training of retrenched
workers with contribution from the employer, of an amount equal to 15 days last
drawn by the worker.

16. Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020
Concerns:
 It will water down the labour rights for workers in small establishments having less than 300
workers and would enable companies to introduce arbitrary service conditions for workers.
 It will give tremendous amounts of flexibility to the employers in terms of hiring and firing,
dismissal for alleged misconduct and retrenchment for economic reasons will be completely possible for
all the industrial establishments employing less than 300 workers which is complete demolition of
employment security.
 The new conditions for carrying out a legal strike elongate the legally permissible time frame before
the workers can go on a legal strike, making a legal strike near impossible.
 It has expanded to cover all industrial establishments for the required notice period and other
conditions for a legal strike even though the Standing Committee on Labour had recommended
against it beyond the public utility services like water, electricity, natural gas, telephone and other
essential services, as is the case at present.
 The mention of ‘other sources’ for funding the re-skilling fund is vague. The reskilling fund
is arbitrarily framed as the Code has no idea from where the funds for the same will come apart from
employers’ contributions.
 These ambiguities are left to the rule-making processes and the bureaucrats and, further, there
are unclarities over who will reskill the workers and how adequate the funding will be.