BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 5 Labour Laws 2024-25 - ATKT 75/25 Question Paper with Solutions

Section 6 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 imposes two requirements.

1. Section 6(1): any seven or more members of a trade union may, by subscribing their names to its rules and complying with the provisions of the Code as to registration, apply for registration.
2. Section 6(2): no trade union of workers shall be registered unless at least ten per cent of the workers, or one hundred workers, whichever is less, engaged or employed in the industrial establishment or industry with which it is connected are its members on the date of making the application.

Section 6(4) requires a registered trade union of workers to continue at all times to have not less than ten per cent of the workers or one hundred workers, whichever is less, subject to a minimum of seven.

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 disputes arising out of individual grievances, of not more than ten members, with equal representation of employer and workers and adequate representation of women workers.

Section 2(u) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: "lock-out" means the temporary closing of a place of employment, or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him.

It is the employer's counterpart of the strike, a weapon used in an industrial dispute to bring the workers to terms, and it is temporary: the relationship is not terminated and the employer intends to reopen.

2. Section 39, the time limit for payment: all amounts payable by way of bonus shall be paid by crediting them to the bank account of the employee within a period of eight months from the close of the accounting year, and the appropriate Government may, on application and for sufficient reasons, extend that period, but the total period so extended shall not in any case exceed two years.

Section 2(zh) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: "retrenchment" means 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, but does not include:

1. voluntary retirement of the worker;
2. retirement of the worker on reaching the age of superannuation;
3. termination as a result of the non-renewal of the contract of employment on its expiry, or of such contract being terminated under a stipulation in that behalf contained therein;
4. termination of service as a result of the completion of the tenure of fixed term employment; and
5. termination of the service of a worker on the ground of continued ill-health.

5. Absence of any compensation for injury until the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, the common law defences of common employment, contributory negligence and volenti non fit injuria defeating almost every claim.
6. Concentration of workers in mill towns, which made organisation physically possible for the first time.
7. The First World War, 1914 to 1918, which brought sharp inflation without corresponding wages, and enormous profits to employers, producing a wave of strikes.
8. The influence of the national movement. Nationalist leaders saw industrial labour as a constituency, and the two movements grew together; Lala Lajpat Rai presided over the first session of the All India Trade Union Congress.
9. The founding of the ILO in 1919, of which India was a founder member, requiring workers' delegates to be sent to the International Labour Conference, which itself required organised unions to exist.
10. The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the spread of socialist and communist ideas among Indian workers and intellectuals.

C. The events.

D. Consolidation after the Act. Registration gave unions corporate status, immunity from criminal conspiracy (Section 17) and immunity from civil suit (Section 18). Membership grew through the 1930s and 1940s, and after independence the movement fragmented along political lines, producing the INTUC (1947), HMS (1948), BMS (1955) and CITU (1970), a fragmentation which the ten per cent registration requirement introduced in 2001 and now in Section 6 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 is intended to check.

B. The State Advisory Board. Section 42(4): every State Government shall constitute a State Advisory Board, similarly composed of representatives of employers, an equal number representing employees, and independent persons not exceeding one-third, with one-third of the members being women.

Its function: to advise the State Government on the fixation or revision of minimum wages, on increasing employment opportunities for women, on the extent to which women may be employed, and on other matters under the Code.

Section 42(5) allows the State Advisory Board to constitute committees and sub-committees to look into specific issues. Section 42(6) provides for the term, procedure, allowances and other conditions of the Boards and committees to be prescribed.

The link to minimum wages. Section 8(3), the proviso: where the appropriate Government proposes to revise minimum wages by the notification method rather than by appointing committees, it shall also consult the concerned Advisory Board constituted under Section 42. Section 9(3): before fixing the floor wage, the Central Government may obtain the advice of the Central Advisory Board and consult the State Governments.

3. The criteria. Section 6(6): in fixing the minimum rate the appropriate Government shall primarily take into account the skill of workers required under the categories of unskilled, skilled, semi-skilled and highly skilled, or the geographical area, or both; and may in addition take into account the arduousness of the work, such as temperature or humidity normally difficult to bear, hazardous occupations or processes, or underground work. The norms of fixation are as prescribed.
4. Components. Section 7: a minimum rate of wages may consist of (a) a basic rate of wages and a cost of living allowance adjusted to the variation in the cost of living index; or (b) a basic rate with or without the cost of living allowance and the cash value of concessions in respect of supplies of essential commodities at concession rates; or (c) an all-inclusive rate allowing for the basic rate, the cost of living allowance and the cash value of concessions.

7. Working day and overtime. Section 10: an employee who works for less than the requisite number of hours constituting a normal working day is entitled to wages for a full day, unless his failure to work is due to his own unwillingness. Section 13 provides for fixing the normal working day and a day of rest in every seven days with wages. Section 14: work beyond the normal working day is paid at the overtime rate, which shall be not less than twice the normal rate.
8. Enforcement: Section 45, a claim before the authority within three years, with power to award compensation up to ten times; Section 59, the burden of proving payment lies on the employer; Section 54(1)(a), a fine up to fifty thousand rupees for paying less than the amount due.

The First Schedule lists the matters: classification of workers, whether permanent, temporary, apprentices, probationers, badlis or fixed term employment; manner of intimating to workers periods and hours of work, holidays, pay days and wage rates; shift working; attendance and late coming; conditions of, procedure in applying for, and the authority which may grant leave and holidays; requirement to enter the premises by certain gates and liability to search; closing and reopening of sections of the establishment and temporary stoppages of work with the rights and liabilities of employer and workers; termination of employment and the notice to be given; suspension or dismissal for misconduct, and acts or omissions which constitute misconduct; means of redress for workers against unfair treatment or wrongful exactions; and any other prescribed matter.

Model standing orders. Section 29: the Central Government shall make model standing orders relating to the First Schedule matters, and until the employer's own standing orders are certified, the model standing orders shall be deemed to be adopted in the establishment.

Preparation and certification. Section 30:

Duration and modification. Section 35: certified standing orders shall not be liable to modification until the expiry of six months from the date they or the last modification came into operation, except on agreement; thereafter an employer, worker, trade union or other representative body may apply to the certifying officer for modification, and the provisions applicable to first certification apply.

Other provisions: Section 31, civil court powers of the certifying officer and appellate authority; Section 33, date of operation and availability; Section 34, register of standing orders; Section 36, oral evidence in contradiction not admissible; Section 37, interpretation of standing orders; Section 38, disciplinary proceedings ordinarily to be completed within ninety days and subsistence allowance at fifty per cent for the first ninety days and seventy-five per cent thereafter; Section 39, power to exempt.

The roadways claims that Laxman is not entitle to retrenchment compensation as per Industrial Relation Code.

(a) Will Laxman get retrenchment compensation? Give reasons?

No retrenchment compensation under Section 70, but he is not to be turned out with nothing.

1. Section 2(zh)(v) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 excludes from the definition of retrenchment the termination of the service of a worker on the ground of continued ill-health. The exclusion is in the same terms as Section 2(oo)(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which the Code replaces.

4. The Court went further, and so must the answer. It held the terminations unjustified and inequitable, and directed that the affected employees be given their retirement and terminal benefits, and either alternative employment in a post they were fit to hold or, where no vacancy existed, compensation, with liberty to be offered a post later on returning the compensation.
5. The burden is on the employer. The Roadways must prove by medical evidence that the impairment is continued, that is lasting and not correctable, and that it genuinely unfits him for a driver's work. Eyesight is central to driving and the safety of passengers depends on it, so on these facts that is readily shown. If it cannot be shown, the termination is retrenchment, Section 70 was not complied with, and the termination is bad, entitling him to reinstatement.

Conclusion. Laxman will not receive retrenchment compensation as such, but he is entitled to his retirement and terminal benefits and to alternative employment or compensation on the authority of Anand Bihari.

4. In a Chapter X establishment (three hundred or more workers), Section 79 requires three months' notice and the prior permission of the appropriate Government.
5. Section 83 adds the worker re-skilling fund: the employer contributes an amount equal to fifteen days' wages last drawn for every retrenched worker, and the fund is used by crediting fifteen days' wages to that worker's own account within forty-five days of the retrenchment. This is over and above the compensation under Section 70.

Illustration. A driver with eight years and nine months of continuous service, average pay Rs. 22,000 a month. The part year exceeds six months, so nine years. Fifteen days' average pay is Rs. 11,000. Compensation is 9 x Rs. 11,000 = Rs. 99,000, plus Rs. 22,000 in lieu of notice, plus Rs. 11,000 to the re-skilling fund credited to his account within forty-five days.

2. Standing orders operate within, not above, the legal order. They have statutory force in the establishment, so they prevail over an inconsistent individual contract; but they are subordinate to the Code, to other statutes and to the Constitution. So a standing order permitting a ten-hour shift is void because Section 54 of the Factories Act, 1948 forbids more than nine hours in a day, whatever the certifying officer may have said.
3. Fundamental rights, and the question of who is bound. Article 12 binds the "State", so where the employer is the State or an instrumentality of the State, its standing orders may be struck down directly for violating Articles 14, 16, 19 or 21. In Central Inland Water Transport Corporation v. Brojo Nath Ganguly (1986) the Supreme Court struck down a service rule permitting termination on three months' notice without reasons, holding it arbitrary and violative of Article 14 and also unconscionable under Section 23 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 as opposed to public policy.

2. Section 30(3) shows why: where an employer simply adopts the model standing orders, they are deemed to have been certified and no certification process is needed. Certification exists precisely for the employer who wants different, bespoke terms suited to its own establishment.
3. The limits are three: the terms must cover every First Schedule matter; they must not be inconsistent with the Code or any other law; and they must be fair and reasonable, on which the certifying officer must be satisfied and against whose decision an appeal lies under Section 32.
4. More favourable terms are always permissible. The model is a floor and a template, not a ceiling.

(c) What is the role of the appellate authority?

1. Section 32 of the Code provides that an employer, worker, trade union, negotiating union or negotiating council aggrieved by the order of the certifying officer may appeal to the appellate authority, within the prescribed period, which under the corresponding provision of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 was thirty days.

(a) Will he succeed?

No, on the authority of the Supreme Court, and for three independent reasons.

2. Statutory immunity. Section 16 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (the successor of Section 18 of the Trade Unions Act, 1926) provides that no suit or other legal proceeding shall be maintainable in any civil court against any registered trade union or any office bearer or member in respect of any act done in contemplation or furtherance of an industrial dispute, on the ground only that such act induces some other person to break a contract of employment, or that it is an interference with the trade, business or employment of some other person or with the right of some other person to dispose of his capital or labour as he wills. Section 17 gives immunity from punishment for criminal conspiracy under Section 120B in respect of agreements to further the objects of the union.
3. The Code provides its own remedies, and they do not include damages. Section 63 declares the strike illegal; Section 86 makes commencing, continuing or acting in furtherance of an illegal strike an offence; Section 64 and Section 86 punish financial aid to it; the workers forfeit wages for the period; participation is ordinarily misconduct under the standing orders; and under Section 63(3) the employer may declare a lock-out in consequence, which is not illegal.

6. during the pendency of arbitration proceedings before an arbitrator and sixty days after, where a notification has been issued under Section 42(5); or
7. during any period in which a settlement or award is in operation, in respect of any matter covered by it.

Section 62(3): notice is not necessary where a strike or lock-out is already in existence, but the employer must send intimation on the day it is declared. Section 62(6): the employer must report a notice within five days to the appropriate Government and the conciliation officer.

The change from the old law must be stated: Section 22 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 imposed the notice requirement only on public utility services; Section 62 applies it to every industrial establishment. And by Section 2(zk) a concerted casual leave by fifty per cent or more of the workers on a given day is itself a strike.

2. His work qualifies. Cleaning and sweeping is plainly manual work, and he is employed for hire or reward by the trust. He is not managerial, administrative or supervisory.
3. But the definition requires employment "in any industry". That is the gateway, and it is answered in part (b). If the temple is not an industry, he is not a worker however manual his work, and none of the Code's protections, retrenchment compensation, standing orders, the Grievance Redressal Committee, adjudication, is available to him.
4. If the trust also runs an industry, a school, a hospital, an annakshetra run as an organised undertaking with employees, and he is employed in that activity, he is a worker in respect of it, on the dominant nature approach.

(b) Is the temple 'industry' under the Industrial Relation Code?

On the facts as stated, no.

4. The Code goes further and adds express exclusions which the 1947 Act never had in force: institutions owned or managed by organisations wholly or substantially engaged in any charitable, social or philanthropic service; any activity of the appropriate Government relatable to its sovereign functions, including departments dealing with defence research, atomic energy and space; any domestic service; and any other activity notified by the Central Government. A temple trust engaged wholly or substantially in religious and charitable work falls within the first of those as well.
5. The qualification that must be stated. If the trust carries on, alongside worship, an organised secular undertaking employing workers, a school, a hospital, a printing press, a guest house run commercially, then on the dominant nature approach that undertaking may be an industry, and a person employed in it is a worker. What takes this claimant outside is that he is employed on the religious activity itself.

Conclusion. The temple, as a place of worship, is not an industry under Section 2(p), and the sweeper employed on that activity is therefore not a worker under Section 2(zr).

For full marks, cover: the text of Section 2(p); its three ingredients; the four express exclusions; the case law that produced it, in order; what the Code settles and what it leaves open; and the comparison with Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

The definition. Section 2(p) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: "industry" means any systematic activity carried on by co-operation between an employer and worker (whether such worker is employed by such employer directly or by or through any agency, including a contractor) for the production, supply or distribution of goods or services with a view to satisfy human wants or wishes (not being wants or wishes which are merely spiritual or religious in nature), whether or not:

1. any capital has been invested for the purpose of carrying on such activity; or
2. such activity is carried on with a motive to make any gain or profit;

but does not include:

2. State of Bombay v. Hospital Mazdoor Sabha (1960). Government hospitals were held to be an industry. The test was activity analogous to trade or business, organised as such, with co-operation between employer and employee in the production of material services. Only regal or sovereign functions were outside, which survives as the second exclusion.
3. University of Delhi v. Ram Nath (1963), Madras Gymkhana Club (1968) and Cricket Club of India (1969): education and members' clubs held not to be industries, decisions later overruled to the extent of conflict.
4. Management of Safdarjung Hospital v. Kuldip Singh Sethi (1970). A sharp retreat: only activities producing material goods or material services analogous to business qualified.

1. It enacts the triple test, so the definition is no longer circular as Section 2(j) was, and no longer dependent on a decision under challenge.
2. It enacts the profit and capital neutrality established by Banerji and Bangalore Water Supply.
3. It enacts the religious exclusion in the same words as the third limb of the triple test.
4. It enacts, at last, the exclusions Parliament attempted in 1982 but never brought into force: charitable, social and philanthropic institutions; sovereign functions, expressly naming defence research, atomic energy and space; and domestic service.
5. It covers contract labour expressly, by including work done through an agency or contractor within the co-operation limb.

What it leaves open. The dominant nature test is not enacted, so where a trust or society carries on both religious or charitable activity and an organised commercial undertaking, the courts will continue to ask what the enterprise predominantly is. Whether an organisation is "wholly or substantially engaged" in charitable, social or philanthropic service is a question of fact. And the power to notify further exclusions leaves the boundary in the hands of the Central Government.

For full marks, cover: the general prohibition; the Explanation on what counts as a deduction; the full list of authorised deductions; the overall ceiling; the detailed rules on fines, absence, damage, services, advances and loans; and the enforcement provisions.

A. The general prohibition. Section 18(1) of the Code on Wages, 2019: notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, there shall be no deductions from the wages of the employee, except those as are authorised under this Code.

The Explanation to Section 18(1) provides that:

1. any payment made by an employee to the employer or his agent shall be deemed to be a deduction from his wages; but

6. deductions for recovery of advances of whatever nature, including advances for travelling allowance or conveyance allowance, and the interest due on them, or for adjustment of over-payments of wages;
7. deductions for recovery of loans made from any fund constituted for the welfare of labour, and the interest due;
8. deductions for recovery of loans granted for house-building or other purposes approved by the appropriate Government, and the interest due;
9. deductions of income tax or any other statutory levy;
10. deductions required to be made by order of a court or other competent authority;
11. deductions for subscription to and repayment of advances from any social security fund or scheme, including provident fund, pension fund and any insurance scheme;
12. deductions for payment of co-operative society dues or of insurance premia, with the written authorisation of the employee;
13. deductions for recovery of losses sustained by a railway administration on account of acceptance of counterfeit or base coins, mutilated or forged currency notes;

1. Fines. Section 19: a fine may be imposed only for acts and omissions specified in a list approved by the appropriate Government and displayed in the prescribed manner; the employee must be given an opportunity of showing cause; the total fine in any wage period shall not exceed three per cent of the wages payable in that period; no fine may be imposed on an employee under fifteen years of age; a fine shall not be recovered in instalments or after ninety days from the day of the act or omission; it is deemed to have been imposed on the day of the act or omission; and all fines and their realisations shall be recorded in a register and applied only to purposes beneficial to the employees and approved by the prescribed authority.
2. Absence from duty. Section 20: the deduction shall bear the same proportion to the wages as the period of absence bears to the wage period. Where ten or more employees acting in concert absent themselves without due notice and without reasonable cause, the deduction may include wages for eight days in lieu of notice.
3. Damage or loss. Section 21: shall not exceed the amount of the damage or loss caused, and shall be made only after the employee has been given an opportunity of showing cause; all such deductions and realisations are to be recorded in a register.

For full marks, cover: the concept and its forms; the constitutional and international basis; the Indian experience, scheme by scheme; the statutory forums; the merits; the demerits; and an assessment with the position under the new codes.

A. The concept. Workers' participation in management is the association of workers with the decision-making process of the enterprise, so that they share in decisions which affect their working lives, rather than merely reacting to decisions made without them. It ranges along a scale of increasing involvement:

1. Information sharing: management informs, workers receive.
2. Consultation: workers are consulted before decisions are taken, but the decision remains management's. This is the level at which most Indian schemes operate.
3. Joint decision-making: specified matters are decided jointly, for example welfare, safety and canteen matters.

2. Joint Management Councils, introduced in 1958 on the recommendation of a study group sent to Europe, on a voluntary basis in selected undertakings, for consultation on production, safety, welfare and training.
3. Workers' representatives on the Board of Directors, tried in nationalised banks and some public sector undertakings from the 1970s.
4. The Scheme for Workers' Participation in Management, 1975, providing for shop councils and joint councils, and the revised scheme of 1983 extending participation at shop floor and plant level in public sector undertakings.
5. The Participation of Workers in Management Bill, 1990, which would have made participation statutory and compulsory, was introduced in Parliament and lapsed; it was never enacted.
6. Grievance Redressal Committee, under Section 4 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, in establishments with twenty or more workers, with equal representation and adequate representation of women, to decide individual grievances, with an application within one year and an appeal to the conciliation officer.

5. Industrial democracy, which the Constitution itself endorses in Article 43A, and a check on arbitrary management.
6. Transparency. Participation obliges management to share information, which improves the quality of collective bargaining as well.
7. Development of workers, who acquire understanding of the enterprise's finances and constraints, producing more realistic demands.

E. Demerits and difficulties.

1. It has remained largely voluntary and therefore largely ineffective. No general statute compels participation; the 1990 Bill lapsed. Schemes without statutory backing depend on management's goodwill.
2. Multiplicity of unions makes it difficult to decide who represents the workers, and rival unions may use participative forums to compete rather than to co-operate.
3. Trade union hostility. Many unions see participation as a device to bypass collective bargaining and to co-opt worker leaders, and prefer to keep the relationship adversarial where their strength lies.
4. Management reluctance to share information and authority, particularly on investment, pricing and manpower.

F. Assessment. India has adopted participation as a policy since 1947 and as a constitutional directive since 1976, but has never made it statutory and compulsory. The result is a long series of schemes, 1958, 1975, 1983, and a lapsed Bill of 1990. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 continues that pattern: it retains the Works Committee at one hundred workers, adds the Grievance Redressal Committee at twenty, and creates the negotiating union and negotiating council under Section 14, but it contains no provision for participation in management as such, and no worker representation on boards. Participation in India therefore remains consultative at best, and the real vehicle for worker influence continues to be collective bargaining through a recognised or negotiating union.

2. The Declaration of Philadelphia, 1944, annexed to the ILO Constitution, restated its aims for the post-war world, declaring that labour is not a commodity, that freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress, that poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere, and that all human beings irrespective of race, creed or sex have the right to pursue their material well-being and spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity.
3. 1946: the ILO became the first specialised agency of the United Nations.
4. 1969: awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in its fiftieth year.
5. 1998: the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which binds all members by virtue of membership, whether or not they have ratified the relevant Conventions, in respect of four principles: freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour; the effective abolition of child labour; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. A fifth, a safe and healthy working environment, was added in 2022.

2. Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) and Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111): ratified.
3. Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182): ratified in 2017.
4. Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98): not ratified by India, the stated difficulty being the position of government servants under the Conduct Rules.
5. Other Conventions influential in India include No. 1 (hours of work in industry), No. 81 (labour inspection), No. 89 (night work of women), No. 144 (tripartite consultation, ratified) and No. 42 (workmen's compensation for occupational diseases).

D. Influence on Indian legislation. The ILO's influence has been direct and traceable:

1. Trade Unions Act, 1926 and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: the principles of freedom of association and of collective bargaining, drawn from Conventions 87 and 98, although unratified.

9. Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 and the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952: from the ILO's social security instruments.
10. Institutional influence: the Indian Labour Conference, the country's tripartite forum, is modelled on the International Labour Conference, and India has ratified Convention No. 144 on tripartite consultation.

E. Constitutional influence. The Constitution's labour provisions reflect the Declaration of Philadelphia: Article 23 (prohibition of forced labour), Article 24 (prohibition of child labour), Article 39(a), (d) and (e), Article 41 (right to work), Article 42 (just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief), Article 43 (living wage and decent standard of life) and Article 43A (participation of workers in management).

For full marks, cover: the definition of industrial dispute; the bi-partite forums; negotiation through the negotiating union; conciliation; voluntary arbitration; adjudication with the composition of the Tribunals; the powers of the Tribunal; the effect of settlements and awards; and the comparison with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

A. What is an industrial dispute. Section 2(q) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workers, or between workers and workers, which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour of any person; and includes any dispute or difference between an individual worker and an employer connected with, or arising out of, his discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination, which is deemed to be an industrial dispute whether or not any other worker or any union is a party to it.

B. Bi-partite forums, Chapter II.

D. Conciliation. Section 43: the appropriate Government may appoint conciliation officers charged with mediating in and promoting the settlement of industrial disputes, for a specified area or industry, permanently or for a limited period. Section 53 governs the conduct of conciliation: the officer investigates the dispute, endeavours to induce the parties to come to a fair and amicable settlement, and reports; where a settlement is reached he sends a memorandum of settlement, and where it is not, a report of failure, after which the parties may apply to the Tribunal for adjudication.

E. Voluntary arbitration. Section 42: where an industrial dispute exists or is apprehended, the employer and the workers may, at any time before it is referred for adjudication, by written agreement refer it to an arbitrator named in the agreement. The agreement is forwarded to the appropriate Government and the conciliation officer and is published; where the parties represent the majority on each side, a notification may be issued so that others concerned may present their case; the Government may prohibit the continuance of a strike or lock-out during the arbitration; and the arbitration award is submitted to the appropriate Government.

F. Adjudication.

G. Awards and settlements. Section 55: form of the award, its communication and commencement. Section 56: an employer who prefers proceedings in a High Court or the Supreme Court against an award directing reinstatement must pay the worker full wages last drawn during the pendency, if he is not employed elsewhere. Section 57: persons on whom settlements and awards are binding. Section 58: their period of operation. Section 59: recovery of money due. Section 60: commencement and conclusion of proceedings. Section 61: confidentiality.

H. Comparison with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

1. Bodies reduced. Boards of Conciliation, Courts of Inquiry and Labour Courts as separate bodies are abolished; only the Tribunal and the National Industrial Tribunal remain.
2. Composition changed. The single-member Tribunal under Section 7A becomes a two-member body with a Judicial and an Administrative Member.
3. A new forum below. The Grievance Redressal Committee at twenty workers has an individual jurisdiction, a time limit and an appeal, none of which the Works Committee had.