BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 5 Labour Laws 2025-26 - ATKT 60/40 Question Paper with Solutions

Section 2(cc), inserted by the Amendment Act of 1982: "closure" means the permanent closing down of a place of employment or part thereof.

Section 25FFF governs its consequences: where an undertaking is closed down for any reason whatsoever, every workman in continuous service for not less than one year is entitled to notice and compensation as if he had been retrenched, that is one month's notice or wages in lieu and fifteen days' average pay for every completed year of continuous service. Where the closure is on account of unavoidable circumstances beyond the control of the employer, the compensation shall not exceed the average pay for three months.

Section 2(n): "public utility service" means:

1. any railway service or any transport service for the carriage of passengers or goods by air;
2. any service in, or in connection with the working of, any major port or dock;
3. any section of an industrial establishment on the working of which the safety of the establishment or the workmen employed therein depends;
4. any postal, telegraph or telephone service;
5. any industry which supplies power, light or water to the public;
6. any system of public conservancy or sanitation; and
7. any industry specified in the First Schedule which the appropriate Government may, by notification, declare to be a public utility service for a period not exceeding six months at a time, where public emergency or public interest so requires.

Section 2(e): "industrial establishment" means:

1. an industrial establishment as defined in clause (ii) of section 2 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936;
2. a factory as defined in clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948;
3. a railway as defined in the Indian Railways Act, 1890; or
4. the establishment of a person who, for the purpose of fulfilling a contract with the owner of any industrial establishment, employs workmen.

Application. Section 1(3): the Act applies to every industrial establishment wherein one hundred or more workmen are employed, or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, and the appropriate Government may, on not less than two months' notice, apply it to establishments employing fewer.

Section 4 of the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971: the State Government shall constitute an Industrial Court consisting of such number of members as it thinks fit, one of whom shall be appointed President. A member must be qualified to be a Judge of a High Court, or must have held a judicial office in India for not less than ten years, or must have been an advocate for not less than ten years.

Its duties, under Section 5, are to decide complaints of unfair labour practices other than those under Item 1 of Schedule IV; to decide applications for recognition, cancellation, re-recognition and recognition of another union under Chapter III; to decide references made to it; and to exercise superintendence over Labour Courts under Section 44.

Section 9. The Investigating Officer is under the control of the Industrial Court and exercises the powers and performs the duties imposed on him by it. Two duties are:

1. to assist the Industrial Court in matters of verification of membership of unions, and to assist the Industrial and Labour Courts in investigating into complaints relating to unfair labour practices; and
2. to report to the Industrial Court or the Labour Court the existence of any unfair labour practice in any industry or undertaking, together with the names and addresses of the persons said to be engaged in it and any other information he thinks fit to report.

Under Section 28(4), when investigating a complaint he may visit the undertaking, make such enquiries as he considers necessary, and make efforts to promote a settlement.

Constitution. Section 3(1): in the case of any industrial establishment in which one hundred or more workmen are employed, or have been employed on any day in the preceding twelve months, the appropriate Government may by general or special order require the employer to constitute a Works Committee.

Composition. It consists of representatives of employers and workmen engaged in the establishment, the number of workmen's representatives being not less than the number of the employer's. The workmen's representatives are chosen in the prescribed manner from among the workmen engaged in the establishment and in consultation with their registered trade union, if any.

Functions. Section 3(2): it shall be the duty of the Works Committee to promote measures for securing and preserving amity and good relations between the employer and workmen and, to that end, to comment upon matters of their common interest or concern and endeavour to compose any material difference of opinion in respect of such matters.

Definition. Section 2(kkk): "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 workman whose name is borne on the muster rolls of his industrial establishment and who has not been retrenched. By the Explanation, a workman whose name is on the muster rolls, who presents himself for work at the appointed time and is not given employment within two hours, is deemed to have been laid off for that day.

Application. Section 25A: Sections 25C to 25E apply only to an industrial establishment in which fifty or more workmen were employed on an average per working day in the preceding calendar month, and not to a seasonal establishment or one in which work is performed only intermittently.

Larger establishments. Section 25M (Chapter VB, one hundred or more workmen): no workman shall be laid off except with the prior permission of the appropriate Government, save where the lay-off is due to shortage of power or to natural calamity, and in a mine also for reasons of fire, flood, excess of inflammable gas or explosion. Section 25M(6) requires a muster roll to be maintained.

Their content mirrors the Schedule: classification of workmen as permanent, temporary, apprentices, probationers or badlis; manner of intimating hours of work, holidays, pay days and wage rates; shift working; attendance and late coming; leave; entry by certain gates and liability to search; closing and reopening of sections and temporary stoppages; termination of employment and notice; suspension or dismissal for misconduct and the acts constituting misconduct; and means of redress against unfair treatment.

Importance.

1. They close the gap before certification. Certification takes months, and the timetable is largely in the employer's hands. Section 12A ensures that from the very first day the Act applies, the establishment has defined conditions of service.
2. They remove any advantage in delay. Since the model orders bind meanwhile, and Section 13(1) imposes a continuing daily fine for failure to submit the draft, an employer gains nothing by putting off certification.
3. They answer the case of the establishment that never certifies. Where an employer has not framed or certified standing orders and regulates service conditions by internal policy, the model standing orders govern and the internal policy does not.

Section 4 fixes the amount of compensation according to the nature of the disablement.

1. Death. Section 4(1)(a): an amount equal to fifty per cent of the monthly wages of the deceased employee multiplied by the relevant factor, or an amount of one lakh twenty thousand rupees, whichever is more. Section 4(4): in addition, the employer shall deposit with the Commissioner not less than five thousand rupees for funeral expenses, payable to the eldest surviving dependant.

2. Permanent total disablement. Section 4(1)(b): an amount equal to sixty per cent of the monthly wages multiplied by the relevant factor, or one lakh forty thousand rupees, whichever is more.

2. The relevant factor is taken from Schedule IV against the completed years of the employee's age on his last birthday preceding the date on which compensation fell due. It is highest for the young and falls as age rises, because a younger worker loses more earning years.

Illustration. A workman aged 30, wages above the ceiling, suffers permanent total disablement. Wages are taken at Rs. 15,000; sixty per cent is Rs. 9,000; the Schedule IV factor at 30 is 207.98; compensation is Rs. 9,000 x 207.98 = Rs. 18,71,820, which exceeds Rs. 1,40,000 and is therefore payable. If the injury were a Part II injury carrying forty per cent, the compensation would be forty per cent of that figure.

Payment. Section 4A: compensation shall be paid as soon as it falls due; where the employer does not accept liability he must make a provisional payment of what he admits; on default the Commissioner may order simple interest at twelve per cent per annum and, where the default is without justification, a penalty not exceeding fifty per cent of the compensation. Section 8: compensation for death must be deposited with the Commissioner, who apportions it among the dependants; a direct payment to a dependant is not payment of compensation.

(a) Analyse whether the conduct of the union amounts to an unfair labour practice.

Yes. It is an unfair labour practice on the part of the trade union under Item 2 of Schedule III of the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971.

Item 2 of Schedule III makes it an unfair labour practice "to coerce employees in the exercise of their right to self-organisation or to join unions or refrain from joining any union", and gives two illustrations: picketing in such a manner that non-striking employees are physically debarred from entering the workplace, and indulging in acts of force or violence or holding out threats of intimidation in connection with a strike against non-striking employees or against managerial staff.

Applying it:

The constitutional dimension. The right to form associations under Article 19(1)(c) has been held to include the right not to associate. A union cannot compel membership any more than an employer can forbid it, and the employer's mirror-image conduct, discriminating in order to encourage or discourage union membership, is itself an unfair labour practice under Schedule II.

(b) What action can be taken under the MRTU&PULP Act?

A complaint under Section 28.

1. Who may complain: any employee, union, employer or Investigating Officer. The coerced workers may complain themselves, or through a union of their own, and the employer may also complain, since Section 28 is not confined to workmen.
2. Limitation: within ninety days of the occurrence of the unfair labour practice, with power in the Court to entertain a later complaint on showing good and sufficient reasons. Where the coercion is continuing, each act is a fresh occurrence.
3. Forum: this is a Schedule III practice and therefore not Item 1 of Schedule IV, so the complaint lies to the Industrial Court under Section 5, not to the Labour Court.

(a) Discuss the legal position under the IE(SO) Act 1946 Act.

The employer is in breach, and the model standing orders already govern the establishment.

1. The Act applies. Section 1(3): the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 applies to every industrial establishment wherein one hundred or more workmen are employed, or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, and to any smaller establishment to which the appropriate Government extends it on not less than two months' notice. The problem states that the establishment exceeds the prescribed number, so the Act applies.

4. The employer cannot regulate arbitrarily. Since the model standing orders are deemed adopted, they are the conditions of service of the establishment. An internal policy or circular inconsistent with them is inoperative, and acting in contravention of standing orders that are in force is an offence under Section 13(2).
5. The employer is also liable to prosecution. Section 13(1): an employer who fails to submit draft standing orders as required by Section 3, or who modifies his standing orders otherwise than in accordance with Section 10, is punishable with fine up to five thousand rupees, and in the case of a continuing offence with a further fine up to two hundred rupees for every day after the first during which the offence continues. Section 13(3) requires the previous sanction of the appropriate Government for a prosecution, and Section 13(4) provides that no court inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the second class shall try the offence.

3. Prosecution under Section 13(1), with the continuing daily fine, on the sanction of the appropriate Government.
4. Adjudication of disputes about the standing orders: any question of their application or interpretation may be referred by an employer, workman, trade union or other representative body to the Labour Court under Section 13A, whose decision is final and binding.
5. The workmen or their union may press for certification, and may also apply for modification of the standing orders once certified, under Section 10(2).
6. Industrial dispute. Arbitrary alteration of conditions of service in a Fourth Schedule matter without twenty-one days' notice under Section 9A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is separately bad, and in Maharashtra a pattern of arbitrary treatment may amount to unfair labour practices under Schedule IV of the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971, complainable to the Labour Court or Industrial Court under Section 28 within ninety days.

1. Section 24(1)(i): a strike is illegal if it is commenced or declared in contravention of Section 22 or Section 23.
2. On these facts, no notice at all was given, so limb (a) of Section 22(1) is contravened and the strike is illegal under Section 24(1)(i).
3. The exception does not apply. Section 22(3) dispenses with notice where there is already in existence a lock-out in the public utility service, but even then the employer must send intimation on the day the strike is declared. Nothing in the facts suggests a subsisting lock-out.
4. Note two limits of the section. It applies only to a strike in breach of contract, and only in a public utility service as defined in Section 2(n), either one of the six categories that are public utility services at all times, or a First Schedule industry declared to be one for a period not exceeding six months at a time. The problem states that this is a public utility service, so the point is conceded.
5. Section 22(4) and (5) prescribe the manner of the notice, and Section 22(6) requires the employer to report to the appropriate Government within five days the receipt of a strike notice.

4. In Maharashtra, consequences for the union. Supporting an illegal strike is the unfair labour practice in Item 1 of Schedule III of the MRTU and PULP Act, 1971. Under Section 12(6) the Industrial Court shall not recognise a union which has instigated, aided or assisted an illegal strike within the six months preceding its application, and under Section 13(1)(v) it shall cancel an existing recognition on that ground. Under Section 25 of that Act the State Government or the employer may refer to the Labour Court the question whether a strike is illegal.

5. What the employer may not do. Section 24(3): a lock-out declared in consequence of an illegal strike is not illegal, so the employer may lock out; but that is its only automatic protection. It cannot dismiss en masse without following the standing orders and the ordinary requirements of a domestic inquiry, and a victimising dismissal is itself an unfair labour practice under Item 1 of Schedule IV.

3. Liability is strict. The whole purpose of the Act was to replace the common law, under which a workman had to prove his employer's negligence and could be defeated by the doctrines of common employment, contributory negligence and volenti non fit injuria. Section 3(1) imposes liability on the fact of the accident, and the employer's plea of the worker's negligence is not one of the statutory exceptions.
4. The only exceptions are in the proviso to Section 3(1), and mere negligence is not among them. They are (i) an injury which does not result in disablement exceeding three days; and (ii) an injury not resulting in death or permanent total disablement where the accident is directly attributable to the employee being under the influence of drink or drugs, or to his wilful disobedience of an order or rule expressly framed for the purpose of securing the safety of employees, or to his wilful removal or disregard of a safety guard or device he knew to have been provided for his safety.

The employer is therefore liable, unless it can bring the case within the proviso, which requires far more than negligence.

4. The employer must prove three things to succeed under the proviso: that the injury did not result in death or permanent total disablement; that there was an express order or rule made for safety, or a safety guard the workman knew of; and that the accident was directly attributable to his wilful breach. Providing equipment is not the same as expressly ordering its use and enforcing that order, and if the injury would have occurred anyway, the breach did not cause it.
5. The employer's own negligence is equally irrelevant to liability under this Act, though it may found a separate civil action in tort for higher damages. Section 3(5) requires the workman to elect: no suit for damages lies where he has instituted a claim before the Commissioner or has agreed with the employer.

Compensation is computed under Section 4 by reference to the nature of the disablement, and under Section 4A must be paid as soon as it falls due, failing which the Commissioner may order interest at twelve per cent and, where the default is without justification, a penalty of up to fifty per cent. An employer who disputes liability must still make a provisional payment of the amount it admits.

For full marks, cover: the definition with all four exclusions; the wide judicial meaning; continuous service under Section 25B; the three conditions in Section 25F and their mandatory character; the procedure in Sections 25G and 25H; Chapter VB and Section 25N; the consequence of breach; and the position under the 2020 Code.

Definition. Section 2(oo): "retrenchment" means the termination by the employer of the service of a workman for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action, but does not include:

1. voluntary retirement of the workman;
2. retirement on reaching the age of superannuation, if the contract of employment contains a stipulation in that behalf;

Continuous service. Section 25B. Section 25F protects only a workman in continuous service for not less than one year. A workman is deemed to be in continuous service for one year if, during the preceding twelve calendar months, he has actually worked for not less than 240 days (190 days in a mine below ground). In computing those days, days on which he was laid off, on leave with wages, absent due to a temporary disablement caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of employment, and, for a female workman, on maternity leave up to twelve weeks, are counted.

The conditions precedent. Section 25F. No workman employed in any industry who has been in continuous service for not less than one year shall be retrenched until:

1. (a) he has been given one month's notice in writing indicating the reasons for retrenchment and the period of notice has expired, or he has been paid, in lieu of such notice, wages for the period of the notice;
2. (b) he has been paid, at the time of retrenchment, compensation equivalent to fifteen days' average pay for every completed year of continuous service or any part thereof in excess of six months; and
3. (c) notice in the prescribed manner is served on the appropriate Government or such authority as may be specified by notification.

2. Section 25H, re-employment. Where any workman is retrenched and the employer proposes to take into his employment any persons, he shall, in the prescribed manner, give an opportunity to the retrenched workmen who are citizens of India to offer themselves for re-employment, and such retrenched workmen who offer themselves shall have preference over other persons.
3. Order of retrenchment: the employer must identify the category, apply Section 25G within it, give the notice and pay the compensation at the time of retrenchment, and serve notice on the Government.

Chapter VB. Section 25N, in an industrial establishment, not seasonal or intermittent, in which not less than one hundred workmen were employed on an average per working day in the preceding twelve months: no workman in continuous service for not less than one year shall be retrenched until (a) he has been given three months' notice in writing indicating the reasons, or wages in lieu, and (b) the prior permission of the appropriate Government has been obtained on an application stating the reasons. The Government decides after enquiry and after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard; its order is final for one year and may be reviewed; and where no order is made within sixty days, permission is deemed to have been granted.

For full marks, cover: the object and application; what standing orders are and the Schedule; certification step by step with every period; the fairness jurisdiction and its date; appeal; date of operation and posting; modification under Section 10; and enforcement through Sections 12A, 13, 13A and the courts.

Object and application. The Act requires employers in industrial establishments formally to define conditions of employment under them and to make them known to the workmen. Under Section 1(3) it applies to every industrial establishment employing one hundred or more workmen, or which employed that number on any day of the preceding twelve months, and to smaller establishments to which the appropriate Government extends it on two months' notice.

3. Notice and objections. Section 5(1): the Certifying Officer forwards a copy to the trade union, or where there is none to the workmen, with notice requiring objections within fifteen days.
4. Hearing and order. Section 5(2): after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard, he decides what modification or addition is necessary to render the draft certifiable and makes an order in writing.
5. Certification. Section 5(3): he certifies the standing orders and within seven days sends authenticated copies to the employer and to the union or the workmen's representatives.
6. Appeal. Section 6: any aggrieved employer, workman, trade union or prescribed representative may appeal to the appellate authority within thirty days; the authority confirms the orders as certified or after amendment; its decision is final; within seven days it sends copies to the parties and to the Certifying Officer, who amends the register under Section 8.

2. Section 10(2): thereafter the employer or any workman or a trade union or other representative body may apply to the Certifying Officer, accompanied by copies of the modifications proposed and, where by agreement, a certified copy of the agreement.
3. Section 10(3): the provisions applicable to original certification apply, so the application goes through notice, fifteen days for objections, a hearing, an order, an appeal within thirty days, and a fresh date of operation.

C. Enforcement.

1. The interim rule. Section 12A: until the standing orders are certified, the model standing orders are deemed to be adopted, so the establishment is never without conditions of service.
2. Statutory force. Certified standing orders operate as the conditions of service of the establishment. They bind an incoming purchaser of the undertaking, they prevail over an inconsistent individual contract, and Section 36 makes oral evidence in contradiction of them inadmissible.

For full marks, cover: why recognition exists and how it differs from registration; the application of Chapter III; the procedure with its qualifying figures; the mandatory refusals; the obligations in Section 19; the rights in Sections 20, 21 and 23; the contrast with Section 22; and cancellation.

The concept, and how it differs from registration. Registration under the Trade Unions Act, 1926 is a matter of legal personality: seven or more members may apply, and registration confers corporate status, the power to hold property, and immunity from criminal conspiracy (Section 17) and from civil suit (Section 18). It says nothing about who speaks for the workforce, and because registration was so easy, Indian establishments commonly had several unions and employers could say they did not know with whom to bargain.

3. Notice and objections. Section 12(1): on preliminary scrutiny the Industrial Court causes notice to be displayed on the notice board of the undertaking, declaring its intention to consider the application and calling on other unions, the employer and the employees to show cause.
4. Enquiry and grant. Section 12(2): after considering objections and holding such enquiry as it thinks fit, if the conditions in Section 11 are satisfied and the union complies with Section 19, the Court grants recognition and issues a certificate.
5. The competing union. Section 12(3): if the Court concludes that another union has the largest membership and has notified its claim, and that union satisfies Sections 11 and 19, recognition is granted to that union instead; by the Explanation it is deemed to have applied in the same calendar month.
6. One only. Section 12(4): there shall not at any time be more than one recognised union for the same undertaking.

Rights. Section 20(1): to collect subscriptions on the premises where wages are paid; to put up a notice board and affix notices; for the prevention or settlement of an industrial dispute, to hold discussions on the premises with member employees, to meet and discuss grievances with the employer, and to inspect any place where an employee is employed; and to appear on behalf of an employee in any domestic or departmental inquiry.

Section 20(2): the recognised union alone may appoint the workmen's nominees on the Works Committee under Section 3 of the Industrial Disputes Act; and no employee may appear or be represented in any proceeding under that Act except through the recognised union, the decision binding all employees in the undertaking, save in a proceeding about dismissal, discharge, removal, retrenchment, termination or suspension.

Section 21: the same exclusivity applies in proceedings about the unfair labour practices in items 2 and 6 of Schedule IV. Section 23: up to two authorised members who appear on the union's behalf are treated as on duty and paid.

For full marks, cover: both definitions with their deeming provisos and Schedule I; the temporary and permanent division; how each is compensated under Section 4; then the employer's defences under the proviso to Section 3(1) with their three built-in limits; and the other statutory limits on liability.

A. Total disablement. Section 2(1)(l): "total disablement" means such disablement, whether of a temporary or permanent nature, as incapacitates an employee for all work which he was capable of performing at the time of the accident resulting in such disablement.

The proviso deems permanent total disablement to result from every injury specified in Part I of Schedule I, or from any combination of injuries specified in Part II where the aggregate percentage of the loss of earning capacity, as specified against those injuries, amounts to one hundred per cent or more.

The two comparisons, and the difference between them. Total disablement asks whether the workman can still do all the work he could do before. Permanent partial disablement asks whether his earning capacity is reduced in every employment he was then capable of undertaking. Both are economic tests, not medical ones, and both are measured at the time of the accident, so the employer cannot argue that he might retrain.

C. How each is compensated. Section 4.

1. Permanent total disablement, Section 4(1)(b): sixty per cent of monthly wages multiplied by the relevant factor in Schedule IV, or Rs. 1,40,000, whichever is more.
2. Permanent partial disablement, Section 4(1)(c): where the injury is in Part II, that percentage of the permanent total figure which the Schedule specifies; where it is not, such percentage as is proportionate to the loss of earning capacity as assessed by a qualified medical practitioner. Multiple injuries from one accident are aggregated, but not beyond the permanent total figure.

2. The fault-based exceptions. No liability in respect of an injury not resulting in death or permanent total disablement caused by an accident directly attributable to: (a) the employee having been under the influence of drink or drugs; (b) his wilful disobedience to an order expressly given, or to a rule expressly framed, for the purpose of securing the safety of employees; or (c) his wilful removal or disregard of any safety guard or other device which he knew to have been provided for his safety.

Three limits are built into the fault-based defences and decide most cases. They never apply to death or permanent total disablement. They require wilfulness, meaning deliberate defiance, not carelessness, forgetfulness or haste. And they require an express order or rule made for safety, or a known safety device, and direct attribution of the accident to its breach.

Other statutory limits on liability.

1. Section 3(4): no compensation for a disease except under Sections 3(2), (2A) and (3) on occupational diseases, unless directly attributable to a specific injury by accident.