LLB 3 years Sem 1 Labour Laws Jan 2025 - Law 60/40 Question Paper with Solutions

Section 2(y) of the Code on Wages, 2019, and in the same terms Section 2(zq) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: "wages" means all remuneration, whether by way of salary, allowances or otherwise, expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed, which would, if the terms of employment were fulfilled, be payable to a person employed, and includes basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, if any.

It excludes bonus not forming part of the remuneration under the terms of employment; the value of house-accommodation, and of the supply of light, water, medical attendance or other amenity or service excluded by general or special order of the appropriate Government; employer's contribution to a pension or provident fund and the interest accrued on it; conveyance allowance or the value of travelling concession; sums paid to defray special expenses entailed by the nature of employment; house rent allowance; remuneration payable under an award or settlement or an order of a court; overtime allowance; commission; gratuity; and retrenchment compensation or other retirement benefit or ex gratia payment on termination.

Section 2(k) of the Code on Wages, 2019: "employee" means any person (other than an apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961) employed on wages by an establishment to do any skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled, manual, operational, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, and also includes a person declared to be an employee by the appropriate Government, but does not include any member of the Armed Forces of the Union.

Other functions: to exercise the jurisdiction, powers and authority conferred on the Tribunal under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, where the Tribunal is constituted by the Central Government (Section 44(1)); and to make an award in the prescribed form under Section 55.

Two immunities, in Sections 16 and 17 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, carried forward from Sections 18 and 17 of the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

1. Immunity from civil suit. Section 16: no suit or other legal proceeding shall be maintainable in any civil court against any registered Trade Union or any office bearer or member thereof 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 in 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 his labour as he wills.
2. Immunity from criminal conspiracy. Section 17: no office bearer or member of a registered Trade Union shall be liable to punishment under sub-section (2) of section 120B of the Indian Penal Code in respect of any agreement made between the members for the purpose of furthering any such object of the Trade Union as is specified in section 15, unless the agreement is an agreement to commit an offence.

The Registrar, under Section 9(5) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. The certificate of registration of a Trade Union may be withdrawn or cancelled by the Registrar:

1. on the application of the Trade Union itself, verified in the prescribed manner;
2. on information received by him regarding the contravention by the Trade Union of the provisions of the Code or the rules made thereunder, or of its own constitution or rules; or
3. if he is satisfied that the members in a Trade Union fall below ten per cent of the total workers or one hundred workers, whichever is less.

The proviso: not less than sixty days' previous notice in writing, specifying the grounds on which cancellation is proposed, must be given by the Registrar to the Trade Union, except where the cancellation is on the union's own application.

Section 54(1)(a) of the Code on Wages, 2019: any employer who pays to any employee less than the amount due to such employee under the provisions of the Code shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees.

Section 54(1)(b): an employer who, having been convicted of an offence under clause (a), is again found guilty of a similar offence within five years from the date of the commission of the first or a subsequent offence, shall on the second and subsequent commission be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.

A. The prohibition. Section 62 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. No person employed in an industrial establishment shall go on strike in breach of contract, and no employer shall lock out:

1. without giving notice of strike or lock-out, as the case may be, within sixty days before striking or locking out;
2. within fourteen days of giving such notice;
3. before the expiry of the date of strike or lock-out 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;

Section 63(2): where a strike or lock-out in pursuance of an industrial dispute has already commenced and is in existence at the time an application is filed in the Tribunal, or of a reference to an arbitrator or National Industrial Tribunal, its continuance is not illegal, provided it was not illegal at its commencement and was not prohibited under Section 42(7).

Section 63(3): a lock-out declared in consequence of an illegal strike, and a strike declared in consequence of an illegal lock-out, shall not be deemed to be illegal.

C. Consequences.

1. Section 64: no person shall knowingly expend or apply any money in direct furtherance or support of any illegal strike or lock-out.
2. Section 86 makes it an offence for a worker to commence, continue or otherwise act in furtherance of an illegal strike, for an employer to do the like in respect of an illegal lock-out, for a person to instigate or incite others, and for a person to give financial aid.

Establishment. The ILO was created in 1919 by Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles, at the end of the First World War, as part of the League of Nations. India was a founder member. In 1946 it became the first specialised agency of the United Nations, and in 1969, its fiftieth year, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Why it was founded. Its preamble gives three reasons: that universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice; that conditions of labour exist involving such injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled; and that the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve conditions in their own countries.

Structure: tripartism. Each member State is represented at the International Labour Conference by two government delegates, one employers' delegate and one workers' delegate, each entitled to vote independently. Its organs are the International Labour Conference, the Governing Body, and the International Labour Office as its permanent secretariat.

1. Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, now the Employees' Compensation Act, from the Conventions on workmen's compensation and occupational diseases.
2. Trade Unions Act, 1926, now Chapter III of the Industrial Relations Code, on freedom of association, though Conventions 87 and 98 remain unratified by India.
3. Factories Act, 1948, on hours of work, weekly rest and the employment of women and children.
4. Minimum Wages Act, 1948, now Chapter II of the Code on Wages, from the Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26), which India has ratified.
5. Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, now Section 3 of the Code on Wages, 2019, from Convention No. 100, ratified.
6. Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, amended in 2016, from Conventions 138 and 182, ratified in 2017.
7. Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, from Conventions 29 and 105, ratified.

Section 2(zr) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020: "worker" means any person, except an apprentice as defined in clause (aa) of section 2 of 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.

2. The dominant nature test: Ananda Bazar Patrika v. Its Workmen (1970) held that the main work actually performed decides, not the designation.
3. Enumeration is exhaustive: H.R. Adyanthaya v. Sandoz (India) Ltd. (1994), a Constitution Bench, held that a person must be employed to do work of one of the named categories, and that medical representatives, being engaged in sales promotion, were not workmen.

4. Section 6(6), the criteria: the appropriate Government shall primarily take into account the skill of workers required for working under the categories of unskilled, skilled, semi-skilled and highly skilled, or geographical area, or both; and may in addition take into account the arduousness of work, such as temperature or humidity normally difficult to bear, hazardous occupations or processes, or underground work, as may be prescribed. The norms of fixation shall be as prescribed.
5. Section 6(7): the number of minimum rates shall, as far as possible, be kept at a minimum.

C. Components. Section 7. A minimum rate of wages fixed or revised may consist of:

1. a basic rate of wages and an allowance adjusted to the variation in the cost of living index, the cost of living allowance; or
2. 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, where so authorised; or
3. an all-inclusive rate allowing for the basic rate, the cost of living allowance and the cash value of the concessions.

3. Section 8(3): after considering the recommendations or all representations received, the appropriate Government shall by notification fix or revise the rates, which unless otherwise provided come into force on the expiry of three months from the date of issue. Where the notification method is used, it shall also consult the concerned Advisory Board constituted under Section 42.
4. Section 8(4): the appropriate Government shall review or revise minimum rates of wages ordinarily at an interval not exceeding five years.

E. The floor wage. Section 9. The Central Government shall fix a floor wage taking into account the minimum living standards of a worker, and may fix different floor wages for different geographical areas. The minimum rates fixed by any appropriate Government shall not be less than the floor wage, and where the existing rate is higher, it shall not be reduced. Before fixing the floor wage the Central Government may obtain the advice of the Central Advisory Board and shall consult the State Governments.

2. Frame the constitution and rules. Section 7 requires the union's constitution or rules to contain the prescribed provisions, including its name and objects, the purposes for which the general funds may be applied, the maintenance of a list of members, the admission of ordinary and honorary members, the subscription payable, the conditions for benefits and for the imposition of fines, the manner of amending, varying or rescinding the rules, the manner of appointing and removing office bearers, the safe custody and annual audit of funds, and the manner of dissolution.
3. Constitute the executive properly. Section 21 disqualifies certain persons from being office bearers, and Section 23 regulates the proportion of office bearers required to be connected with the industry, so that most of the executive must be persons actually employed in the establishment.

6. If registration is refused. Section 10 gives a right of appeal against non-registration.
7. Maintain the position. Section 6(4): the union must 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; otherwise the Registrar may cancel the certificate under Section 9(5), on sixty days' notice.

What registration gives them. Section 12: the union becomes a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, able to hold property and to contract, and to sue and be sued. Section 16: immunity from civil suit in respect of acts done in contemplation or furtherance of an industrial dispute, on the ground only that they induce a breach of a contract of employment or interfere with trade or business. Section 17: immunity from punishment for criminal conspiracy. Section 15: the right to maintain a general fund and a separate fund for political purposes. And it becomes eligible to be recognised as a negotiating union under Section 14.

1. Section 30(1): the employer shall prepare draft standing orders within a period of six months from the date of commencement of the Code, based on the model standing orders referred to in Section 29, in respect of the matters specified in the First Schedule and on any other matter he considers necessary, provided such provision is not inconsistent with any provision of the Code and covers every matter set out in the First Schedule.
2. Section 30(2): the employer shall consult the Trade Unions, or the recognised negotiating union, or the members of the negotiating council relating to the establishment in respect of the draft, and thereafter forward the draft, electronically or otherwise, to the certifying officer for certification.
3. Section 30(3), the shortcut: where the employer adopts a model standing order of the Central Government with respect to matters relevant to his establishment, that model standing order shall be deemed to have been certified, and he need only forward the information to the certifying officer, who may make observations and direct the employer accordingly.

Yes.

1. Section 84 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 provides that no employer or worker or a Trade Union, whether registered under this Code or not, shall commit any unfair labour practice specified in the Second Schedule.
2. The Second Schedule lists unfair labour practices in two parts, those on the part of employers and trade unions of employers and those on the part of workers and trade unions of workers. Among the latter is to indulge in acts of force or violence, and to wilfully damage the employer's property connected with the industry.

3. Under the general law: the immunity in Section 16 protects a registered union and its members from civil suit only on the ground that an act induces a breach of a contract of employment or interferes with trade or business. It gives no protection for damage to property, violence or criminal trespass, so the employer may sue in tort for the damage and may prosecute under the Indian Penal Code.
4. Under the Code on Wages: Section 21 allows a deduction from wages for damage to or loss of goods expressly entrusted to the employee for custody, where the damage is directly attributable to his neglect or default, but only after an opportunity of showing cause and not exceeding the amount of the damage.
5. In Maharashtra, for the union: if the union instigated or supported the conduct, its recognition may be refused under Section 12(6) or cancelled under Section 13(1)(iv) of the MRTU and PULP Act, on the ground that it is not being conducted bona fide in the interests of the employees.

3. It further prohibits an employer from dominating, interfering with or contributing support, financial or otherwise, to any trade union; from establishing employer-sponsored trade unions; and from discriminating against any worker in regard to hire, tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment for the purpose of encouraging or discouraging membership of a trade union.
4. Mr. Billal's conduct in discouraging his workers from joining or forming any trade union falls directly within the first of those, and if it takes the form of threats or of discrimination, within the others as well.

Reasons and consequences.

1. The right interfered with is constitutionally protected. Article 19(1)(c) guarantees the right to form associations or unions.
2. The Code protects union formation directly: Section 6 entitles seven or more members to apply for registration subject to the ten per cent condition, and the employer has no part in the process and no power to refuse.
3. Consequences under the Code: commission of an unfair labour practice is an offence under Section 86, and Section 87 governs cognizance.

The definition now. 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 any capital has been invested or the activity is carried on with a motive to make any gain or profit; but does not include:

1. institutions owned or managed by organisations wholly or substantially engaged in any charitable, social or philanthropic service;
2. any activity of the appropriate Government relatable to its sovereign functions, including the departments of the Central Government dealing with defence research, atomic energy and space;
3. any domestic service; or
4. any other activity as may be notified by the Central Government.

3. State of Bombay v. Hospital Mazdoor Sabha (1960). Government hospitals were held to be an industry. The working test: activity analogous to trade or business, organised as such, with co-operation between employer and employee in the production of material services; only the regal or sovereign functions of the State were excluded. Contribution: the character of the employer is not a test.
4. University of Delhi v. Ram Nath (1963): education held not an industry, teaching being a noble vocation. Madras Gymkhana Club (1968) and Cricket Club of India (1969): members' clubs held not industries, being self-serving. Contribution: a narrowing, later overruled.
5. Management of Safdarjung Hospital v. Kuldip Singh Sethi (1970). A hospital devoted to training and research was held not an industry; only activities producing material goods or material services analogous to business qualified. Contribution: the sharpest narrowing, later overruled.

What Section 2(p) settles. It enacts the triple test, so the definition is no longer circular and no longer rests on a decision under challenge. It enacts profit and capital neutrality. It enacts the religious exclusion in the same words as the third limb. It enacts the exclusions Parliament attempted in 1982 and never brought into force, and adds domestic service and a power to notify further exclusions. And it covers contract labour expressly, by including work done through an agency or contractor.

What it leaves open. The dominant nature test is not enacted, so a mixed undertaking still requires the court 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 charitable exclusion is wider than anything Bangalore Water Supply permitted: under that decision a charitable hospital employing paid staff was an industry; under Section 2(p) an institution owned or managed by such an organisation is excluded.

B. The triggers. The First World War (1914 to 1918) brought sharp inflation without corresponding wages, and a wave of strikes. The founding of the ILO in 1919, of which India was a founder member, required workers' delegates to be sent to the International Labour Conference and exposed Indian conditions to international scrutiny. The Russian Revolution of 1917 spread socialist ideas, and the national movement adopted labour as a constituency.

C. The early associations and the first unions.

1. Bombay Mill Hands Association (1890), founded by N.M. Lokhande, a welfare association rather than a union in the modern sense.
2. Printers' Union, Calcutta (1905) and the Bombay Postal Union (1907).
3. Madras Labour Union (1918), founded by B.P. Wadia, generally regarded as the first organised trade union in India.
4. All India Trade Union Congress (1920), the first national federation, its first session presided over by Lala Lajpat Rai.

What it did not do: it said nothing about recognition. An employer was under no obligation to deal with a registered union, and that gap has shaped Indian industrial relations ever since.

E. Growth and fragmentation after independence. Membership grew rapidly, but the movement split along political lines: INTUC (1947), HMS (1948), BMS (1955) and CITU (1970), alongside AITUC. Because seven members could register a union and outsiders could lead it, establishments commonly had several rival unions, and employers could plausibly say they did not know with whom to bargain.

F. Attempts to close the recognition gap.

1. Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946, with its concept of a representative union.
2. Trade Unions (Amendment) Act, 1947, which provided for compulsory recognition, was passed but never brought into force.
3. Code of Discipline, 1958, a voluntary tripartite instrument, and the First National Commission on Labour (1969), which recommended statutory recognition; neither produced a central statute.

G. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020. It amalgamates the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. It carries forward registration on seven members with the ten per cent condition (Section 6), the immunities (Sections 16 and 17), and the machinery for cancellation (Section 9(5)) on sixty days' notice. Its central reform is Section 14, which for the first time gives the whole country a statutory bargaining agent: 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, recognition being valid for three years and up to five.

2. Grievance Redressal Committee. Section 4: in every establishment with twenty or more workers, of not more than ten members, with equal representation and adequate representation of women workers; for individual grievances; application within one year of the cause of action; proceedings completed within thirty days; decision by a majority of the workers' representatives; appeal to the conciliation officer.

C. Negotiation, Chapter III. Section 14: a sole negotiating union where one registered union functions, or where one has fifty-one per cent or more of the workers on the muster roll; otherwise a negotiating council of unions with not less than twenty per cent each, one representative for each twenty per cent, an agreement requiring the assent of a majority of the representatives; valid for three years, extendable to a total of five.

D. Conciliation. Sections 43 and 53: conciliation officers appointed by the appropriate Government for a specified area or industry, charged with mediating in and promoting the settlement of industrial disputes; the officer investigates and endeavours to bring the parties to a fair and amicable settlement; 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.

3. Sections 47 to 49: decision, disqualifications, and the procedure and powers of the arbitrator, conciliation officer and Tribunals, including civil court powers.
4. Section 50: in a case of discharge or dismissal, where satisfied that the order was not justified, the Tribunal may set it aside and direct reinstatement on such terms as it thinks fit, or grant other relief including a lesser punishment.

G. Awards and settlements. Section 55, the form, communication and commencement of the award; Section 56, full wages last drawn payable during proceedings in a High Court or the Supreme Court against an award of reinstatement; Section 57, who is bound; Section 58, the 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. Boards of Conciliation, Courts of Inquiry and Labour Courts as separate bodies are abolished; their work passes to the Tribunal.
2. The Tribunal changes from one member to two, one Judicial and one Administrative.

For full marks, cover: the obligation and its universal reach; the components in Section 7; the criteria in Section 6(6); the two procedures in Section 8 with the tripartite committee; the revision cycle; the floor wage in Section 9; the related provisions on working day and overtime; and enforcement.

A. The obligation. Section 5 of the Code on Wages, 2019: no employer shall pay to any employee wages less than the minimum rate of wages notified by the appropriate Government. This applies to every employee in every establishment, unlike the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, which applied only to employments listed in its Schedule.

B. The components. Section 7(1). Any minimum rate of wages fixed or revised may consist of:

1. a basic rate of wages and an allowance at a rate to be adjusted, at such intervals and in such manner as the appropriate Government may direct, to accord as nearly as practicable with the variation in the cost of living index number applicable to such workers, that allowance being the cost of living allowance; or

Section 6(7): the number of minimum rates shall, as far as possible, be kept at a minimum.

D. The form of the rate. Section 6(2): the minimum rate may be fixed for time work or for piece work. Section 6(3): where employees are on piece work, a minimum rate must also be fixed on a time work basis. Section 6(4): time rates may be fixed by the hour, by the day or by the month, and Section 6(5) provides for the manner of calculation.

E. The procedure. Section 8.

1. Two routes. Section 8(1): in fixing minimum rates for the first time or in revising them, the appropriate Government shall either (a) appoint as many committees as it considers necessary to hold enquiries and recommend, or (b) publish its proposals by notification for the information of persons likely to be affected, specifying a date not less than two months from the notification on which the proposals shall be taken into consideration.
2. Composition of a committee. Section 8(2): persons representing employers; persons representing employees, equal in number to those representing employers; and independent persons not exceeding one-third of the total members.

G. Related provisions. Section 10: an employee who works less than the requisite hours of a normal working day is entitled to wages for a full normal working day, unless his failure to work was due to his own unwillingness. Section 11: wages for two or more classes of work. Section 12: minimum time rate wages for piece work. Section 13: fixing the normal working day, including intervals, and a day of rest in every period of seven days with wages. Section 14: work beyond the normal working day is paid at the overtime rate, not less than twice the normal rate of wages.

H. Enforcement. Section 45: a claim before the appointed authority within three years, with power to award the amount due and compensation not exceeding ten times it. Section 59: the burden of proving payment lies on the employer. Section 51: the Inspector-cum-Facilitator. Section 54(1)(a): paying less than the amount due is punishable with a fine up to fifty thousand rupees, and on a repeat conviction within five years with imprisonment up to three months or a fine up to one lakh rupees or both.