The document discusses industrial relations in India, outlining key aspects of the system such as the legislative framework, key actors (employers, workers, government), and tripartite bodies that aim to balance interests. It also covers the evolution of the system from pre-independence to modern times, noting the impact of globalization and technological changes. Maintaining sound industrial relations is important as it can help boost productivity and growth while ensuring social justice and workers' welfare.

1. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN INDIA
Presented By:
Minaxi Kataria
Research scholar,
Gurukula Kangri University, Haridwar

2. Introduction
 The framework for industrial relations in India is formed by
a number of legislations in the country that contribute
obligations and duties for both employers and workers.
 Under the constitutions of India, labour is a subject in the
Concurrent List, which empowers both the Central and State
Government to enact legislations subject to certain matters
being reserved for the center.

3.  Industrial relations in India revolve around three actors:
1) Employers
2) Workers and their unions and
3) The State/Govt.
 This three-pronged(or tripartite) structure tries to balance
the power equation between management and workers.
 Many tripartite bodies have been set up in India for joint
consultation between the representative of government,
employers and workers.
 These bodies, such as the Indian Labour Conference (ILC),
 The Standing Labour Committee (SLC) and

4.  Industrial Committees provides a forum to discuss and
resolve the issues related to labour.
 The role of the State/Govt. is protective for labour, the
weaker partner in industrial relations. The Govt. is not only
a policy maker; it is also an employer in public sector
enterprises. It initiates and ensures proper implementation
and administration of policies and legislations for workers’
welfare, social security, health and safety.

5. Labour Administration Machinery
 In India the Ministry of Labour & Employment controls
labour-related issues. The Ministry has four attached offices,
namely:
1) Office of the Directorate General of Employment and
Training, New Delhi
2) Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), New
Delhi.
3) Labour Bureau, Chandigarh and Shimla and,
4) Directorate General of Factory Advice Service and Labour
Institutes, Mumbai.

6. Labour Subordinate offices in India
1. Directorate General of Mines Safety, Dhanbad
Offices of the Welfare Commissions in India:
1. Employees’ State Insurance Corporation
2. Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation
3. V.V Giri National Labour Institute and
4. Central Board of Workers’ Education.

7. Industrial Relation in Public Sector
Introduction
 The emergence of the public sector on the economic scene
is a post-independence development. Prior to 1947, public
sector investment was limited to the railways, post and
telegraphs, ordnance factories, and a few state managed
factories like salt manufacturing.
 The philosophy and programme of public sector
undertaking are incorporated in the Industrial Policy
Resolution of 1948 and 1956 .
 Industrial Policy Resolution 1948 declared that “a dynamic
national policy must be directed to a continuous increase in
production by all possible means, side by side with
measures to secure its equitable distribution.

8. Labour policy and public enterprises
A brief accounts of various labour policies which have clearly
highlighted the role of PSUs are as follows:
 First Five Year Plan: the worker in public enterprise stands on a
different footing from a worker in private enterprise. He has a
dual role of master and servant, master as a citizen of the country
and servant as a worker of the undertaking.
 Planning Commission view that the “working conditions” and
“welfare facilities” available in public sector should act as a
“model of the private sector”.
 Second Five-Year Plan : In this plan it was stated that “if
conditions of work in the public undertaking are expected to set
the pace for the private sector, administrators handling such
undertaking have to be specially watchful of labour enterprise”.

9.  The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 remarked that, if
a socialist democracy labour is a partner in the common
task of development and should participate in it with
enthusiasm. There should be joint consultation and
workers and technicians should, where possible be
associated progressively with management.
 The Third Plan view that “ the enterprise of the public
sector have a special obligation to follow labour policies
which are conducive to securing and keeping a competent
working force at a reasonable cost”.

10. Worker Participation in Management in Public Sector
Gandhiji advocated the need of workers’ participation in industry. The
First Five Year Plan called construction of joint committee for
consultation at all levels. The Industrial Policy Resolution 1956 in this
context, observed that “in a socialist democracy, laborer as a partner in
the common task of development and should participate in it with
enthusiasm”.
Since then the participative scheme got momentum in the public
sector. A few common schemes of workers’ participation that are
prevalent in public sector are:
1. Work committee
2. Joint Management Councils
3. Shop Councils;
4. Plant Councils
5. Participation in share capital; and
6. Participation at Board levels.

11.  Quality of collective bargaining techniques adopted by
public sector workers is not different from those of
private employees. Unions do not know with whom to
negotiate as the managers themselves are the employees
of the public enterprise and are themselves governed by
several rules and regulations.
 State Intervention: With regard to third party intervention
in labour disputes, there is no difference in the practices
followed between the public and private sectors.
 Trade unions allege that the enterprises under central
Government receive some preferential treatment which
adversely affects labour interests.

12.  Industrial Disputes: Collective bargaining is used in public
sector to resolve the disputes. The bargaining is usually at
the plant or corporate level only.
 Bureau of Public Enterprises advocates civil service type
standard compensation system & work conditions for all
state owned units.
 INTUC Public sector Union’s Conference: The
conference held in 1981 pleaded for further expansion of
the public sector. It reiterated that the success of the public
sector be measured not on profit index but on social
objectives of developing backward regions, generation of
employment & protection of existing employment.

13. It complained that the sector is not managed by persons
who have understood and are committed to the philosophy
of public sector.
 CITU public sector unions’ Conference: Was held in
1987. It also criticized Planning Commission’s
recommendation to reduce the role to be played by the
public sector. The conference was against the reckless
drive for the modernization , mechanization, and
computerization of public sector undertakings without
objectively finding out their need. CITU further alleged
that the Government was yielding to conditionality of
IMF & the World bank and defocusing from the objective
of making the economy self reliant.

14.  The National Commission on Labour has suggested the following
measures to improve industrial relations in the public sector.
i. Responsibilities for improving industrial relations be clearly
defined
ii. Active participation of managers in implementing labour
welfare schemes & adopting practices that improve
productivity of workers
iii. Provide training to managers & workers in industrial relations
& managerial styles.
iv. Effective action to enforce labour laws. v] eliminate
carelessness and indiscipline.
v. Make appointment of managers on a
permanent basis.
vi. Establish a separate industrial relations department in public
enterprise under control of personnel manager.

15. Evolution of Industrial Relation System
Dunlop’s Framework of Industrial Relations System

16. Introduction
 Dunlop considered industrial relations a subsystem of
society, distinct from , but overlapping, other subsystems. He
suggested that industrial relation system could be divided
into four interrelated elements comprising “certain actors,
certain contexts, an ideology which blinds the industrial
relation system together and a body of rules created to
govern the actors at the workplace.

17. Dunlop’s Framework of Industrial Relation System
1.The actors are :
I. Managers and their representatives
II. Workers and their organisations
III. Specialized government agencies
2. The contexts are:
i. Technological characteristics of the workplace and work
community
ii. The product and factor markets or budgetary constrains
that impinge on the actors
iii. The locus and distribution of power in the large society.

18. 3. The ideology: an ideology is a set of ideas and beliefs
commonly held by the actors that helps to bind or to
integrate the system together as an entity. It is a body of
common ideas that defines the role and place of each actor
and the ideas that each actor holds towards the place and
function of the others in the system.
4. The network or web of rules: these concern procedures
for the establishing rules, the substantive rules themselves
and the procedures for deciding their application

19. History and Genesis of Industrial
Relation System in India
 In India, IR has passed through several social, economic,
political and technical factors which influence the IR from time
to time.
 In the Pre-Independence Era:
a. Conditions of employment & wages were very poor
b. There were hardly any laws to protect the interest of the
workers
c. After First World War, the concept of IR changed and the
employees resorted to violence and employers to lockouts.
d. The Trade Dispute Act of 1929 was enacted by the Govt. to
speed up the process of settlement of Industrial disputes.

20.  In 1938 the Bombay Industrial Relations (BIR) Act was
enacted by the Govt. of Bombay to meet the acute
Industrial unrest prevailing at that time. The Industrial
Court, a permanent machinery for the settlement of
dispute was established for the first time.
 The BIR Act of 1938 was replaced b the BIR Act 1946,
further amended in 1948,1949,1953 & 1956.
 After Second World War the state of IR in the country
deteriorated.

21.  The Post Independence Era :
a. The Industrial Disputes Act 1947 was enacted. It established a
permanent machinery for the settlement of Industrial disputes.
b. Various labour laws, concerning, seniority, wage rate, paid
holidays, disciplinary matters, social security were enacted
from 1947 to 1956.
c. In 1957 the Govt. emphasis shifted from legal enactment to
voluntary arrangements
 The National Commission of Labour (NCL) was appointed by
the Govt. in 1966 to look into labour matters. The commission
studied and analyzed the IR in India and its various dimensions
for the first time both in the organised and unorganised sectors.
The issues covered in the report included labour welfare, wages,
wage policy, bonus, social security, workers’ training and
education, workers’ and employers’ organisations, and industrial
relation machinery.

22.  The period between late 70’s and early 1980’s has been
characterised by violence on the Indian front.
 To meet the situation of Industrial strife on 26th July 1981
the Govt. issued an ordinance to ban strikes. A new law
called the Essential Service Maintenance Act 1981 (ESMA)
was promulgated with this the Govt. has wide ranging
powers to intervene in Industrial Relation.
 The Second National Commission on Labour (2002):the
commission submitted its report on analysis of issues related
to labour by taking into consideration the impact of
globalization, need for change in the existing labour laws,
dynamics of the Indian Labour system, progress of
industrial development after independence.

23. Substances of a sound Industrial Relation System
 The structures of the economy and labour market
 Constitutional provisions, legal framework, and labour
standards (international and national; statutory and voluntary)
 The structure of trade unions and employers organizations
and their linkages, attitudes and approaches
 The nature and degree of government intervention
 Policies on industrial relations at international, national,
industry, firm and workplace levels.
 Labour market policies and labour market institutions, labour
law administration and dispute relation mechanisms.

24. Attributes of a sound Industrial Relation System
 Harmonizes the interests of ecologically sustainable
economic growth with social progress and justice
 Generates productive employment
 Contributes to improvement in the productivity and quality
of goods/services at economical/competitive costs.
 Improves the well-being and quality of life of workers and
their families.

25. Essential of Modern Industrial System
The industrial relation system in India has undergone a sea
change in the post-liberalisation phase. The last two decades
have witnessed notable transformation in the way business is
done. Physical boundaries between nations are no longer an
obstruction for business as:
1. Multinational organisations are emerging in large number
and are continuously expanding the concern of employers
towards the rights and interest of workers is increasing, and
2. Workers are much more aware of their surrounding
environment and are awakened towards their rights as
compared to the pre-independence period.
3. New management systems are emerging that are designing
novel ways of managing worker-management relations.

26.  Initially the scope of industrial relations was limited, more
or less, to procuring and securing workers’ rights by trade
unions.
 Now the scope has expanded to all those aspects of work-
related activities that require interaction between workers
and management.
 Workers, through their representatives, participate in
decision making in the enterprise to find ways to:
 Enhance firm performance
 To discuss discipline-related issues, and
 Training of workers, etc.

27.  Changing nature of business has also given to new issues for
collective bargaining.
 Business organisation are now hiring employees on contract
basis as expense incurred on such workers are lesser as
compared to permanent employee. Due to this, job security
has emerged as an important issue in collective bargaining
besides wages, work conditions, etc.
 Impact of Globalization: Globalization is the process of
interconnecting people across the world on various
dimensions including cultural, economic, political,
technological and environmental aspects. The process of
globalization influences not only macro-level economics
policies, but also arrangements at enterprise level.

28.  Globalization has bought changes in :
i) A remarkable shift in the traditional system of industrial
relations and changed the dimensions of relationship
between management and workers.
ii) Expands the boundaries of doing business across nations
and bring interdependence between countries.
iii) Change in products traded: shift to more skill-intensive
products in developing countries and less skill-intensive
products in developed countries.( Michael Camdessus,
ex MD IMF).
To support changes there have been a number of
modifications in work arrangements in organisation, which
also impact on the employer-employee relationship and has
altered the role played by Trade unions.

29.  IR and technological changes: technological change has
been an important aspects that has a significant impact on
labour management relations. New technology is adopted
by organisation for various reasons like: cost cutting,
achieving better quality, time saving, efficiency and gaining
competitive advantages.
 Adoption of technology affects wide-ranging aspects in
organisation including:
 Human resource
 Job profiles
 Work arrangements
 Employee attitudes
 Training and Industrial relations

30. Impact of Industrial System
 Industrial production and productivity may be affected,
growth of industries will be stunted if there is no harmony in
industrial relation.
 Absence of mutual co operation affects, participation forums
and Bargaining Plat forms.
 Government also will loose revenue, and may need to spend
more to keep law and order around the industry
 Due to frequent strikes and conflicts the GDP growth will
decrease .
 Poor industrial relation indirectly leads to increase in product
price and cost.