BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 5 Labour Laws 2024-25 Question Paper with Solutions

Chapter VII of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, "Mechanism for Resolution of Industrial Disputes", provides:

1. Section 43: conciliation officers appointed by the appropriate Government to mediate in and promote the settlement of industrial disputes;
2. Section 44: Industrial Tribunals, each consisting of two members, one Judicial Member and one Administrative Member;
3. Section 46: National Industrial Tribunals, constituted by the Central Government for disputes involving questions of national importance or affecting establishments in more than one State;
4. Section 42: voluntary arbitration by written agreement before the dispute is referred; and
5. Section 4: a Grievance Redressal Committee in every industrial establishment employing twenty or more workers, for the resolution of individual disputes.

Two different thresholds must be distinguished.

1. For lay-off compensation and ordinary retrenchment. Section 65(1), read with Sections 67 to 70: the ordinary provisions on lay-off compensation apply to establishments employing fifty or more workers on an average per working day in the preceding calendar month, excluding seasonal and intermittent establishments. Section 70 applies to any worker in continuous service for not less than one year.
2. For prior government permission. Section 77(1): Chapter X applies to an industrial establishment, not being seasonal or intermittent, in which not less than three hundred workers, or such higher number as the appropriate Government may notify, were employed on an average per working day in the preceding twelve months. In such an establishment, Section 78 prohibits lay-off and Section 79 prohibits retrenchment without the prior permission of the appropriate Government.

Section 14 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.

1. Section 14(2): where only one registered trade union is functioning in an industrial establishment, the employer shall, subject to prescribed criteria, recognise it as the sole negotiating union.
2. Section 14(3): where more than one registered trade union is functioning, the union having fifty-one per cent or more of the workers on the muster roll, verified in the prescribed manner, shall be recognised by the employer as the sole negotiating union.
3. Section 14(4): where more than one union is functioning and none has fifty-one per cent, the employer shall constitute a negotiating council consisting of representatives of those registered unions which have the support of not less than twenty per cent of the total workers on the muster roll, with one representative for each twenty per cent and for the remainder.

The International Labour Organisation, founded in 1919 by Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and since 1946 a specialised agency of the United Nations, addresses both through its Conventions and Recommendations and through the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which names the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour and the effective abolition of child labour among the four fundamental principles binding on all members by virtue of membership, whether or not they have ratified the relevant Conventions.

On forced labour: the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), which requires the suppression of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms, and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105). India has ratified both.

On child labour: the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), which requires a minimum age for admission to employment not less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling, and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182). India ratified both in 2017.

5. to employ workers as badlis, casuals or temporaries and to continue them as such for years, with the object of depriving them of the status and privileges of permanent workers;
6. to refuse to bargain collectively in good faith with the recognised trade unions; and
7. to recruit workers during a legal strike which is not an illegal strike.

Section 53 allows an officer of the appropriate Government, not below the rank prescribed, to impose penalty in certain cases instead of prosecution. Section 52 provides that no court inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class shall try an offence under the Code, and cognizance is taken only on a complaint made by or under the authority of the appropriate Government or an Inspector-cum-Facilitator. Section 56 allows composition of offences not punishable with imprisonment.

A. Lay-off compensation.

Definition. Section 2(t) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: "lay-off" means the failure, refusal or inability of an employer, on account of shortage of coal, power or raw materials, the accumulation of stocks, the break-down of machinery, natural calamity or any other connected reason, to give employment to a worker whose name is borne on the muster rolls of his industrial establishment and who has not been retrenched. By the Explanation, a worker who presents himself at the appointed time and is not given employment within two hours is deemed to have been laid off for that day.

Compensation. Section 67: a worker, other than a badli or casual worker, whose name is borne on the muster rolls and who has completed not less than one year of continuous service, is entitled, for all days of lay-off except weekly holidays, to compensation equal to fifty per cent of the total of the basic wages and dearness allowance that would have been payable had he not been laid off.

Definition. Section 2(zh): the termination by the employer of the service of a worker for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action, excluding voluntary retirement; superannuation; non-renewal or termination of a contract under a stipulation in it; completion of the tenure of fixed term employment; and termination on the ground of continued ill-health.

Conditions. Section 70: no worker in continuous service for not less than one year shall be retrenched until (a) he has been given one month's notice in writing indicating the reasons, and the notice period has expired, or he has been paid wages in lieu; (b) he has been paid, at the time of retrenchment, compensation equivalent to fifteen days' average pay, or average pay of such days as may be notified, for every completed year of continuous service or any part thereof in excess of six months; and (c) notice is served on the appropriate Government in the prescribed manner.

Procedure. Section 71: last come, first go within the category, unless reasons are recorded. Section 72: preference in re-employment to retrenched workers where the employer proposes to take any person into employment within one year.

The position under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. The Code does not treat public utility services differently. Section 62 extends to every industrial establishment the notice requirement which the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 imposed only on public utility services. That is itself the most important thing to say.

Section 62(1): no person employed in an industrial establishment shall go on strike in breach of contract:

1. without giving to the employer notice of strike within sixty days before striking;
2. within fourteen days of giving such notice;
3. before the expiry of the date of strike specified in any such notice;
4. during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings;
5. during the pendency of proceedings before a Tribunal or a National Industrial Tribunal and sixty days after their conclusion;

Illegality. Section 63: a strike or lock-out is illegal if commenced or declared in contravention of Section 62, or continued in contravention of an order under Section 42(7). A strike or lock-out already in existence when proceedings begin does not become illegal by that fact, if it was lawful at its commencement; and a lock-out declared in consequence of an illegal strike, or a strike in consequence of an illegal lock-out, is not illegal. Section 64 prohibits financial aid to illegal strikes and lock-outs.

The position under the old law, for contrast. Section 2(n) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 defined "public utility service" as railway and air transport services, service in connection with a major port or dock, any section of an establishment on whose working the safety of the establishment or workmen depends, postal, telegraph and telephone services, industries supplying power, light or water to the public, systems of public conservancy or sanitation, and any First Schedule industry declared to be one for up to six months at a time. Section 22 imposed the notice requirements on those services alone, with six weeks for the notice; Section 23 applied the pendency prohibitions to all establishments.

4. Proportionate reduction. Section 27: where an employee has not worked all the working days, the minimum bonus is proportionately reduced. Section 28 governs the computation of working days, counting days of lay-off, leave with wages, maternity leave and absence due to a work injury.
5. Disqualification. Section 29: an employee is disqualified from receiving bonus if he is dismissed from service for (a) fraud; (b) riotous or violent behaviour while on the premises of the establishment; (c) theft, misappropriation or sabotage of any property of the establishment; or (d) conviction for sexual harassment.
6. The fund. Sections 31 to 36 govern payment out of the allocable surplus, computation of gross profits and available surplus, sums deductible, and set on and set off of allocable surplus.
7. Adjustments. Section 37: customary or interim bonus already paid is adjusted against the bonus payable. Section 38: where an employee is found guilty of misconduct causing financial loss to the employer, the loss may be deducted from the bonus payable in that year.

The Code uses "worker", not "workman", and defines it in Section 2(zr).

"Worker" means any person, except an apprentice as defined in the Apprentices Act, 1961, employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, and includes:

1. working journalists as defined in the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955;
2. sales promotion employees as defined in the Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976; and
3. for the purposes of any proceeding under the Code in relation to an industrial dispute, any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched or otherwise terminated in connection with, or as a consequence of, that dispute, or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that dispute.

1. Penalty. Section 86(9): any worker who commences, continues or otherwise acts in furtherance of an illegal strike is punishable with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month, or with both.
2. Instigation and financial aid. Section 86(10) punishes a person who instigates or incites others to take part in an illegal strike, and Section 86(11), read with Section 64, punishes the knowing expenditure or application of money in direct furtherance or support of one, with fine up to twenty-five thousand rupees or imprisonment up to one month or both.
3. No wages. There is no statutory right to wages for the period of an illegal strike, and the settled position under the Industrial Disputes Act, carried into the Code, is that wages are not payable.

(b) How should the workers have proceeded to comply with the Code?

1. Serve a notice of strike on the employer within sixty days before the intended date of striking, in the form and manner prescribed (Section 62(1)(a)).
2. Specify the date of strike in the notice, and not strike before that date (Section 62(1)(c)).
3. Wait fourteen days from the giving of the notice before striking (Section 62(1)(b)).
4. Check that no proceeding is pending. Do not strike during conciliation before a conciliation officer or for seven days after; nor during proceedings before a Tribunal or National Industrial Tribunal or sixty days after; nor during arbitration under Section 42 where a notification has been issued, or sixty days after; nor while a settlement or award is in operation on the same matter (Section 62(1)(d) to (g)).

(a) How do standing orders protect employees from arbitrary dismissal?

Standing orders protect an employee in five distinct ways, all traceable to Chapter IV of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 and, before it, to the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.

1. They define misconduct in advance. The First Schedule to the Code requires standing orders to provide for "suspension or dismissal for misconduct, and acts or omissions which constitute misconduct". An employer cannot dismiss for conduct it has not previously defined as misconduct and published.

In addition, Section 38 of the Code requires that where a worker is suspended pending inquiry, the inquiry shall ordinarily be completed within ninety days, and subsistence allowance be paid at fifty per cent of wages for the first ninety days and seventy-five per cent thereafter where the delay is not attributable to him.

Applied to these facts: the standing orders provide a warning system for tardiness. Dismissal for repeated lateness, without following that system, is a punishment not authorised by the standing orders for that default, and is therefore bad. Even if dismissal were an available punishment, the employer must show a charge sheet, an opportunity to explain, a fair domestic inquiry, and a reasoned order.

(b) What recourse does the employee have under the Industrial Relations Code 2020 if the standing orders were violated in this case?

1. Grievance Redressal Committee. Section 4: in an industrial establishment employing twenty or more workers, the aggrieved worker may apply to the Grievance Redressal Committee, which has equal representation of employer and workers and at least one woman member where women are employed. The application must be made within one year of the cause of action, and an appeal lies to the conciliation officer.

5. Wages pending proceedings. Section 56: where an employer prefers proceedings in a High Court or the Supreme Court against an award directing reinstatement, he is liable to pay the worker full wages last drawn during the pendency, if the worker is not employed elsewhere.
6. Penalty on the employer. Section 86 makes contravention of the Code's provisions on standing orders an offence.
7. In Maharashtra, the dismissal may also be an unfair labour practice under Item 1 of Schedule IV of the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971, complainable to the Labour Court under Section 28 within ninety days, with power in the Court under Section 30 to order reinstatement with back wages and interim relief.

2. Discrimination and sponsored unions are prohibited. The Second Schedule further prohibits an employer from dominating, interfering with or contributing support, financial or otherwise, to any trade union, and from discriminating in regard to hire, tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment in order to encourage or discourage membership.
3. Registration is a right, not a concession. Section 6 entitles any seven or more members to apply, subject to the union having at least ten per cent of the workers or one hundred workers, whichever is less; Section 9 governs registration and Section 10 gives an appeal against refusal. The employer has no part in the process.
4. Immunities. Section 16 gives a registered trade union, its office bearers and members immunity from civil suit in respect of any act done in contemplation or furtherance of an industrial dispute, on the ground only that it induces a breach of a contract of employment or interferes with trade, business or employment. Section 17 gives immunity from punishment for criminal conspiracy under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code in respect of agreements to further the objects of the union.

2. In Maharashtra, use the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971, which gives a better remedy. The threat is an unfair labour practice under Schedule II, and a complaint lies to the Industrial Court under Section 28 within ninety days. Under Section 30 the Court may declare the practice, direct the employer to cease and desist, direct affirmative action including reinstatement with or without back wages, and grant interim relief pending the decision. That last power is the reason the State Act is preferred: a threat of dismissal needs a restraining order now, not an award in three years.
3. Proceed with registration regardless. The employer's consent is irrelevant. The workers may apply under Section 6 and, if registration is refused, appeal under Section 10.
4. Raise an industrial dispute about the underlying grievances, low wages and unsafe working conditions, through the conciliation officer under Section 43 and, on failure, the Tribunal under Section 53.
5. If anyone is actually dismissed, that dismissal is itself an industrial dispute under the proviso to Section 2(q), and the Tribunal may under Section 50 set it aside and order reinstatement.

(a) Does this situation constitute wage discrimination?

Yes.

1. Section 3 of the Code on Wages, 2019 prohibits discrimination on the ground of gender: "There shall be no discrimination in an establishment or any unit thereof among employees on the ground of gender in matters relating to wages by the same employer, in respect of the same work or work of a similar nature done by any employee." It further prohibits an employer from reducing the rate of wages of any employee, and from making any discrimination on the ground of sex while recruiting any employee for the same work or work of a similar nature, and in the conditions of employment except where employment of women in such work is prohibited or restricted by law.

The constitutional dimension. Article 14 guarantees equality before the law, Article 15(1) prohibits discrimination on the ground of sex, Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment, and Article 39(d) directs the State to secure equal pay for equal work for both men and women. The Supreme Court has held that "equal pay for equal work", though a Directive Principle, is enforceable through Articles 14 and 16 in public employment: Randhir Singh v. Union of India (1982).

(b) What legal recourse does Sarah have?

1. A claim before the authority. Section 45 of the Code on Wages, 2019: the appropriate Government appoints an authority, not below the rank of a Gazetted Officer, to hear and determine claims arising under the Code, including claims relating to payment of less than the amount due. An application may be filed by the employee, a registered trade union, or an Inspector-cum-Facilitator, and must be made within three years from the date on which the claim arises. On finding the claim proved, the authority may direct payment of the amount due and compensation not exceeding ten times that amount.
2. Appeal. Section 49: an appeal lies to the appellate authority, an officer not below the rank of Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner or equivalent, within ninety days.

2. Grievance Redressal Committee. Section 4: every industrial establishment employing twenty or more workers shall have one or more Grievance Redressal Committees for the resolution of individual disputes, of not more than ten members, with equal representation, and with an adequate representation of women where women are employed. An aggrieved worker may apply within one year of the cause of action; the Committee decides by a majority of the workers' representatives and completes the proceedings within thirty days; and an appeal lies to the conciliation officer within sixty days.

B. Negotiation, Chapter III. Section 14 provides the machinery through which most disputes are settled before they become disputes: a sole negotiating union where one union functions or where one has fifty-one per cent or more of the workers on the muster roll, and otherwise a negotiating council of unions with not less than twenty per cent each, one representative per twenty per cent, an agreement requiring a majority of the representatives, valid for three years and up to five.

1. Industrial Tribunal. Section 44: the appropriate Government may constitute one or more Industrial Tribunals for the adjudication of industrial disputes. Section 44(2): every Tribunal shall consist of two members appointed by the appropriate Government, of whom one shall be a Judicial Member and the other an Administrative Member. Section 44(3): a bench may consist of a Judicial Member and an Administrative Member, or of a single Judicial Member, or of a single Administrative Member. A Tribunal constituted by the Central Government also exercises the jurisdiction of the Tribunal under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

3. Section 56: where an employer prefers proceedings in a High Court or the Supreme Court against an award directing reinstatement, he shall be liable to pay the worker full wages last drawn during the pendency, if the worker is not employed elsewhere.
4. Section 57: persons on whom settlements and awards are binding. Section 58: their period of operation. Section 59: recovery of money due from an employer. Section 60: commencement and conclusion of proceedings. Section 61: certain matters to be kept confidential.

G. Comparison with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

1. Bodies abolished: Boards of Conciliation (Section 5), Courts of Inquiry (Section 6) and Labour Courts (Section 7) as separate bodies disappear; their work passes to the Tribunal.
2. Composition changed: the one-person Tribunal of Section 7A becomes a two-member body with a Judicial and an Administrative Member.

For full marks, cover: the three definitions from the Code; the characteristics of each; the compensation payable in each; the procedural requirements; the thresholds; and a systematic comparison.

A. Lay-off. Section 2(t) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: the failure, refusal or inability of an employer, on account of shortage of coal, power or raw materials, the accumulation of stocks, the break-down of machinery, natural calamity or any other connected reason, to give employment to a worker whose name is borne on the muster rolls of his industrial establishment and who has not been retrenched. By the Explanation, a worker who presents himself at the appointed time and is not given employment within two hours is deemed laid off for that day.

Characteristics.

1. It is temporary. The employment relationship continues and the name stays on the muster rolls.

B. Retrenchment. Section 2(zh): the termination by the employer of the service of a worker for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action, excluding (i) voluntary retirement; (ii) superannuation; (iii) non-renewal of the contract on its expiry or its termination under a stipulation in it; (iv) completion of the tenure of fixed term employment; and (v) termination on the ground of continued ill-health.

Characteristics.

1. It is permanent as to the individual, but the establishment continues.
2. It covers every termination outside the five exclusions and outside disciplinary punishment; the words "for any reason whatsoever" are not confined to surplus labour.
3. Conditions precedent, Section 70: one month's notice in writing indicating the reasons or wages in lieu; fifteen days' average pay for every completed year of continuous service or part in excess of six months, paid at the time of retrenchment; and notice to the appropriate Government.

4. Chapter X establishments. Section 80: an employer intending to close down must apply for the prior permission of the appropriate Government at least ninety days before the intended closure.
5. Transfer of undertaking. Section 73 provides for compensation to workers where the ownership or management of an undertaking is transferred, unless service is uninterrupted, terms are no less favourable, and the new employer is liable to pay compensation on the basis of unbroken service.

D. Comparison.

For full marks, cover: the constitutional and international background; the specific provisions of the Industrial Relations Code; the position under the companion codes, because the Code cannot be evaluated alone; and then a genuine evaluation, what it does well and what it leaves undone.

A. The background.

1. Constitution: Article 14 (equality before the law), Article 15(1) and (3) (no discrimination on the ground of sex, and power to make special provision for women), Article 16 (equality of opportunity in public employment), Article 39(a), (d) and (e) (equal right to an adequate means of livelihood, equal pay for equal work for both men and women, and protection of the health and strength of workers), Article 42 (just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief), and Article 51A(e) (fundamental duty to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women).

2. Gender-neutral definitions. "Worker" in Section 2(zr) and "employee" in Section 2(l) are cast without reference to sex, so every right in the Code, to notice and compensation on retrenchment, to lay-off compensation, to standing orders, to representation by a negotiating union, belongs equally to women.
3. Trade union rights are equally available. Section 6 entitles any seven or more members to apply for registration; Section 20 confers rights of membership on minors above fifteen; and nothing in Chapter III limits office-bearing or membership by sex.
4. Standing orders. Chapter IV and the First Schedule require conditions of service, including classification, leave, termination and the acts constituting misconduct, to be defined and certified as fair, which protects women against unwritten and arbitrary practices.
5. Fixed term employment. Section 2(o) requires a fixed term worker to receive hours, wages, allowances and other benefits not less than a permanent worker doing the same work, and proportionate statutory benefits, which matters because women are disproportionately employed on such contracts.

C. What the companion codes provide, without which the evaluation is incomplete.

D. Evaluation.

What is achieved.

1. Consolidation and uniform enforcement. The equal remuneration principle is no longer a stand-alone statute with its own officers; it is enforced by the same Inspector-cum-Facilitator and the same claims authority as every other wage right, with a three-year limitation and compensation of up to ten times the amount due.
2. Wider reach. Section 3 of the Wages Code applies to all establishments and all employees, organised and unorganised, whereas the 1976 Act applied to notified employments.
3. Representation, not merely protection. Section 4(2) of the Industrial Relations Code puts women on the committee rather than merely giving them a right to complain to it.
4. Night work and hazardous work opened up. Removing blanket prohibitions, subject to consent and safety, treats women as workers rather than as a protected class, which is what Article 15(3) permits but does not require.

What is left undone.

5. The higher thresholds cut both ways. Raising the Chapter X threshold to three hundred workers removes the prior-permission protection from many establishments, and because women are concentrated in smaller units and in fixed term and contract work, they are disproportionately affected.
6. Fixed term employment, though given parity of conditions by Section 2(o), also excludes completion of tenure from retrenchment under Section 2(zh)(iv), so a worker whose term simply expires receives no retrenchment compensation, a route to insecure employment in sectors where women predominate.

Conclusion. The Codes advance gender equality principally through the Code on Wages, not through the Industrial Relations Code, which contributes one significant provision, the representation of women on the Grievance Redressal Committee, and otherwise proceeds by gender-neutral drafting. Formal equality is largely achieved; substantive equality depends on enforcement and on reaching the sectors where women actually work.

3. Wages fixed unilaterally, with arbitrary fines and deductions and no legal remedy for their recovery until the Payment of Wages Act, 1936.
4. No security of employment. Dismissal was at will, with no notice, no compensation and no forum.
5. No compensation for injury. Until the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 an injured workman had to prove his employer's negligence and could be met with the defences of common employment, contributory negligence and volenti non fit injuria.
6. The jobber or mistry system, under which recruitment, discipline and pay passed through an intermediary who extracted his own share.
7. Migrant and illiterate workforce, drawn from famine-stricken agricultural districts, with no bargaining power individually.
8. The First World War (1914 to 1918) brought sharp price rises without corresponding wages, and a wave of strikes followed.

C. The Trade Unions Act, 1926: what it did.

1. Registration: any seven or more members could apply, and a registered union became a body corporate with perpetual succession and the power to hold property and to contract.
2. Immunity from criminal conspiracy (Section 17): no office bearer or member is liable to punishment under Section 120B(2) of the Indian Penal Code in respect of an agreement to further the objects of the union stated in Section 15.
3. Immunity from civil suit (Section 18): no suit is maintainable against a registered union, its office bearers or members, in respect of an act done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, on the ground only that it induces some other person to break a contract of employment or interferes with trade, business or employment. This is the direct answer to the Buckingham Mills decision.
4. Regulation of funds: a general fund for the objects in Section 15, and a separate political fund under Section 16 to which contribution is voluntary.
5. Rights of minors and outsiders: membership from fifteen, and a proportion of office bearers permitted to be outsiders.

6. Maharashtra Recognition of Trade Unions and Prevention of Unfair Labour Practices Act, 1971: the first effective statutory recognition scheme in India, giving a union with thirty per cent membership over six months the right to apply to the Industrial Court for recognition, conferring exclusive rights under Sections 20 and 21, and prohibiting unfair labour practices on both sides.
7. Trade Unions (Amendment) Act, 2001: raised the requirement for registration to ten per cent or one hundred workmen, whichever is less, subject to a minimum of seven, and limited the proportion of outsiders among office bearers.
8. Second National Commission on Labour (2002): recommended consolidation of the labour statutes into a small number of codes.
9. Industrial Relations Code, 2020: amalgamated the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 into a single statute; carried forward the ten per cent registration requirement in Section 6 and the immunities in Sections 16 and 17; and, for the first time nationally, provided for a sole negotiating union at fifty-one per cent and a negotiating council at twenty per cent in Section 14.

2. Schedule II, employers, on the right to organise: interference, restraint or coercion in the exercise of the right to organise; threatening discharge or dismissal if workers join a union; threatening lock-out or closure if a union is organised; dominating, interfering with or financing a union; establishing employer-sponsored unions; discrimination in hire, tenure or conditions to encourage or discourage membership; discharge for union activity or for giving evidence; and refusing to bargain collectively in good faith with the recognised union.
3. Schedule III, trade unions: advising, supporting or instigating an illegal strike; coercing workers in the exercise of the right to self-organisation, including picketing that physically debars non-strikers and acts of force, violence or intimidation; a recognised union refusing to bargain in good faith; coercive activities against certification of a bargaining representative; wilful go slow, squatting after working hours or gherao; and demonstrations at the residences of employers or managerial staff.

5. Procedure, Section 28: complaint by any union, employee, employer or Investigating Officer, within ninety days of the occurrence, with power to condone delay for good and sufficient reasons; Item 1 of Schedule IV to the Labour Court under Section 7, everything else to the Industrial Court under Section 5; investigation and attempted settlement by the Investigating Officer; decision as far as possible within six months; the order final and not questionable in any civil or criminal court.
6. Remedies, Section 30: declaration; cease and desist; affirmative action including reinstatement with or without back wages; and interim relief. Section 50: recovery as arrears of land revenue.

2. The central Act: the Fifth Schedule to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, inserted in 1982.

1. Section 2(ra) defines unfair labour practice by reference to the Fifth Schedule; Section 25T prohibits it; Section 25U makes commission an offence punishable with imprisonment up to six months or fine up to one thousand rupees or both.

1. Coverage is now uniform and comprehensive. All three schemes cover both sides, and between them catch interference with organisation, victimisation, sponsored unions, mala fide transfers, the abuse of casual employment, refusal to bargain, illegal strikes, coercion and violence.
2. The remedies differ sharply, and that is what matters. A penal provision punishes the wrongdoer; it does not restore the dismissed worker or restrain the transfer. The Maharashtra model works because it is remedial: cease and desist, reinstatement with back wages, and above all interim relief while the complaint is pending.
3. Time limits cut both ways. The ninety-day limit in Section 28 is short and has defeated meritorious complaints; but it also produces decisions while the evidence is fresh, and the Court may condone delay.