Settlement of Industrial Disputes:
Whatever may be the cause of industrial disputes, the consequences are
harmful to all stakeholders- management, employees, economy and the society. For
management, disputes result in loss of production, revenue, profit, and even
sickness of the plant.
Employees would be hard hit as
the disputes may lead to lockouts and consequent loss of wages and even jobs.
Various methods are available for
resolving disputes. Most important of them are:
Figure 2 RESOLVING
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE
Collective
Bargaining:
Collective bargaining helps for settlement of issues and prevention of
industrial disputes. It occurs when representatives of a Labour union meet
management representatives to determine employees’ wages and benefits, to create or revise work rules
and to resolve disputes or violations of
the Labour contract.
The bargaining is collective in
the sense that the chosen representative of the employees (i.e. union) acts as
a bargaining agent for all the employees in carrying out negotiations and
dealings with the management. On the
employer side, it is collective in those common situations in which the
companies have joined together in an employer association for the purposes of
bargaining with a union.
Collective bargaining has been viewed as a process of social change, as
a peace treaty between the conflicting parties and as a system of industrial
jurisprudence.(i.e it is a method of introducing civil rights into the industry
).
The process of collective bargaining involves six major steps:
Code of Discipline:
The code of discipline defines duties and
responsibilities of employers and workers. The objectives of the code are:
1. To ensure that employers and
employees recognize each other’s rights and obligations.
2. To promote consecutive co-operation
between parties concerned at all levels.
3. To eliminate all forms of coercion,
intimidation and violence in IR.
4. To avoid work stoppages.
5. To facilitate the growth of trade
unions.
6. To maintain discipline in the industry.
Grievance Procedure:
This is another method of resolving disputes. Grievance is any
discontent or dissatisfaction, arising out of employment relationship, which an
employee thinks, believes or feels to be unfair, unjust or inequitable.
A grievance procedure is a formal process which is preliminary to
arbitration, which enables the parties involved to attempt to resolve their
differences in a peaceful and orderly manner.
It enables the company and the trade union to investigate and discuss
the problem at issue without in any way interrupting the peaceful conduct of
business.
When the grievance redressal machinery works effectively, it
satisfactorily resolves most of the disputes between Labour and management.
Arbitration:
Arbitration is a procedure in which a neutral third party studies the
bargaining situation, listens to both the parties, gathers information and then
makes recommendations that are binding on both the parties.
Arbitration is effective means of resolving disputes because it is established
by the parties themselves and the decision is acceptable to them. This method
is fast and less expensive when compared to courts and tribunals.
Process of Arbitration:
1) The labour union generally takes
initiative to go for arbitration. When the union decides, it notifies the
management.
2) The union & the management
select the potential arbitrator by carefully studying the previous decisions
given by the particular arbitrator, to detect any biases.
3) After the arbitrator is selected, the
time & place for hearing will be determined, the issue to be resolved will be presented to the
arbitrator in a document that summarizes
the questions to be decided, any contracts restrictions that prohibit the
arbitrator from making an award that would change the terms of existing
contract.
4) Each side represents its case at the
hearing.
5) Witness, cross-examination,
transcripts & legal counsel may be used.
6) After hearing, the arbitrator
studies the materials submitted and reaches the decision within 30 – 60 days.
7) The decision given usually is a
written opinion mentioning the reasons.
8) The report is submitted by the
arbitrator to the appropriate government
Conciliation:
Conciliation is a process by which the representatives of workers and
employers are brought together before a third party with a view to persuading
them to arrive at an agreement by mutual discussion between them. The third
party may be an individual or a group of people. The third party may also be
called as mediators.
The ID Act, 1947and other state enactments authorize the governments to
appoint conciliators charged with duty of mediating in and promoting the
settlement of industrial disputes.
In Conciliations, the ultimate
decision rests with the parties themselves but the conciliator may offer a
solution to the dispute acceptable to both the parties and serve as a channel communication.
The parties may accept his recommendation or reject it. If the conciliation
fails, the next stage may be compulsory adjudication or the parties may be left
with their own choice. In cases where a settlement is arrived at, they can
record the settlement and in case of failure of the conciliatory negotiations,
they can send a failure report to the appropriate government.
Adjudication:
Adjudication means a mandatory
settlement of an industrial dispute by a Labour court or a tribunal. Generally,
the government refers a dispute for adjudication depending on the failure of
conciliation proceedings. Section 10 of the Industrial Act, 1947, provides for
reference of a dispute to Labour court or tribunal.
Disputes are generally referred
to adjudication on the recommendation of the conciliation officer who had dealt
with them earlier. The government has discretionary powers to accept or reject
recommendations of the conciliation officer. It is obvious that once is
referred for adjudication, the verdict of a Labour court or tribunal is binding
on both the parties.
This is the most significant instrument of resolving disputes. But, it
has been criticized because of the delay involved in resolving conflicts.
Consultative Machinery:
Consultative machinery is set
by the government to resolve conflicts. The main function is to bring the parties
together for mutual settlement of differences in the spirit of co-operation and
goodwill. Consultative machinery operates at plant, industry, state and
national levels. At plant level, there are works committee and joint management
councils. Being bipartite in character, works
committee are constituted as per the provisions of industrial Disputes Act,
1947 and joint management councils are set up following the trust laid down in the Industrial Policy Resolution,1956. At the industry level, there are wage boards and industrial committee. Labour
advisory boards operate at the state and at the all India level there are
Indian Labour conference and the Standing Labour committee. The bodies operating at state and national level
are tripartite in character, representing government, Labour and management.
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