B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Labour Law I 2019 Jun Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: what a trade union is (section 2(h) of the Trade Unions Act 1926) and what trade unionism means (the principle and movement of workers combining to bargain collectively); its objectives and functions; why it arose (the factory system and the single worker's weak bargaining position); its growth in India in phases: early welfare associations (Bombay Millhands Association, 1890), the first unions after the First World War (Madras Labour Union, 1918), a national centre (AITUC, 1920) and the ILO (1919), legal recognition after the injunction against Wadia's union (Trade Unions Act 1926), and growth alongside political parties after Independence (Balmer Lawrie); the constitutional position (All India Bank Employees' Association); the English background in brief; the Industrial Relations Code 2020; a conclusion.

3. Welfare. To run benefit funds for members in sickness, unemployment, accident or old age, and to provide education.
4. Voice. To speak for workers in public life and in legislation, sometimes through a separate political fund.

Why it arose

The factory brought large numbers of workers under one employer, who owned the machines and set the terms. A worker who refused those terms could be replaced, and his labour could not be stored for a better day. Combination changed the balance, because many workers stopping together could halt production. Trade unionism grew from that fact.

Growth in India: the phases

Phase 1: welfare associations (to 1918). Factory industry began in the Bombay cotton mills and the Calcutta jute mills in the 1850s. N.M. Lokhande founded the Bombay Millhands Association in 1890. It worked for the mill hands' welfare, but it was not a union in the modern sense, with members, funds and rules.

Balmer Lawrie Workers' Union v. Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd., AIR 1985 SC 311. An unrecognised union challenged a Maharashtra law that let only the recognised union represent the workers. The Supreme Court upheld the law. It explained that Indian trade unions developed as adjuncts of political parties. The multiplicity of parties produced a multiplicity of rival unions in one undertaking. Their rivalry led to untenable demands and disturbed industrial peace, so the law chose one union as the sole bargaining agent.

The constitutional footing

All India Bank Employees' Association v. National Industrial Tribunal, AIR 1962 SC 171. The Association said that section 34A of the Banking Companies Act 1949 violated its right under Article 19(1)(c). The section let banks withhold evidence of undisclosed reserves from tribunals. A Constitution Bench upheld the section. Article 19(1)(c) protects the right to form a union. It does not guarantee that the union will achieve its objects. What a union may do, such as strike or bargain, depends on the laws Parliament makes.

So trade unionism in India grew under the Constitution's guarantee of association, but its working powers come from statute.

Conclusion. Trade unionism is the principle and movement of workers combining in lasting organisations to bargain collectively and protect their interests. In India it grew from the welfare body of 1890 to the Madras Labour Union of 1918 and the AITUC of 1920. The 1926 Act then gave registered unions legal status and immunities. After Independence unions multiplied alongside political parties, as Balmer Lawrie explains. The Constitution protects the forming of unions, but their powers come from statute, as All India Bank Employees' Association holds.