Industrial Relations - In a Nutshell....
Industrial Relations are an important aspect of economic and social development in society. A stable and effective industrial relations situation is important for facilitating economic growth and equitable distribution of remuneration to labour. Industrial relations focuses on employer, employee relations with regard to terms and conditions of employment and grievance redressal procedures within the framework of existing legislation. The government plays an important role in ensuring the framework necessary for stable and effective industrial relations. Industrial relations are therefore a shared tripartite responsibility between the three equal social partners in society namely the government, the employer and the trade unions.
The Industrial Relations Act 1967 and its policies had been revised on numerous occasions including the amendments in April 2009, where new policies were introduced to replace the conventional method of membership verification exercise byway of secret ballot, this mandatory exercise has been entrusted to the Department of Industrial Relations, which was formerly carried out by the Director General, Registrar of Trade Unions, with this new amendments the role of DGTU is distinguished and declared redundant.
This piece of legislations and changes in its policies are based partly on the inherited ‘control culture’ of the colonial era, thus it is not surprising to note here that the proposed amendments would induce greater market friendly policies to attract foreign investment and encourage local investors. This new proposal to amend the legislation and its policies is viewed; form the union’s prospective as an aggressive exercise to suppress and deprive the legitimate right of labour to representation and redressal. The current policy refers to trade dispute; means any dispute between an employer and his workmen which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of work of any such workmen’. With the new proposal a workman’s right to appeal and redressal pursuant to Section 20(1) IRA , is sanction and only a trade union can refer a trade dispute under the proposed amendments. If this new proposals were to be accepted by the stakeholders, than the fundamental principle of liberty to livelihood enshrined in the Federal Constitution would become redundant, amendments with such unprecedential scale cannot ensure that turbulence in the production as a result of labour unrest is minimized. Labour rights must be upheld in accordance to common law principle thus under such circumstance the proposed amendments to substitute ‘trade dispute’ and by adopting the word ‘trade dispute’ means where there is a trade union’ must be rejected altogether and status-quo must be maintained, because we construe that such draconian legislation would defeat the right to representation of a workman or workmen.
The proposed amendments would not enhance industrial harmony or create a conducive working environment if the legislative is not prepared to provide adequate protection to workmen. Workers are the pillars of a nation hence the onus is with the government to ensure that their fundamental liberty to security of employment and dignity is protected.
to be continued in the next chapter......
