ANATOMY
OF
INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT
Concept and Essentials of
a Dispute
According to the Industrial Disputes Act,
1947, Section 2(k); “industrial disputes
mean any dispute or difference between
employers and employers, or between
employers and workmen or between
workmen and workmen, which is connected
with the employment or non-employment or
terms of employment or with the conditions
of Labour of any person."
Contd.
For a dispute to become an industrial
dispute, it should satisfy the following
essentials:
1. There must be a dispute or a difference
(a) between employers (such as wagewarfare where labour is scarce);
(b) between employers and workmen
(such as demarcation disputes): and
(c) between workmen and workmen.
Contd.
2.
3.
4.
It is connected with the employment or nonemployment or the terms of employment or
with the conditions of labour of any person
(but not with the managers or supervisors), or
it must pertain to any industrial matter,
A workman does not draw wages exceeding
Rs. 1,600 per month.
The relationship between the employer and
the workman must be in existence and
should be the result of a contract and the
workman actually employed.
Interpretation of disputes by
courts
Some of the principles for judging the nature
of a dispute evolved by the courts are as
follows.
1.
The dispute must affect a large group of
workmen who have a community of
interest and the rights of these workmen
must be affected as a class. In other
words, a considerable section of
employees should necessarily make
common cause within the general lot.
Contd.
2.
3.
The dispute should invariably be
taken up by the industry union or by
an appreciable number of workmen.
There must be a concerted demand
by the workers for redress and the
grievance becomes such that it turns
from individual complaint into a
general complaint.
Contd.
4.
The parties to the dispute must have
direct and substantial interest in the
dispute, i.e., there must be some
nexus between the union which
espouses the causes of the
workmen and the dispute. Moreover,
the union must fairly claim a
representative character.
Contd.
5.
If the dispute was in the beginning
in an individual's dispute and
continued to be such till the date of
its reference by the government for
adjudication, it cannot be converted
into an industrial dispute by support
subsequent to the reference even of
workmen interested in the dispute.
Contd.
By incorporating Section 2A in the Industrial
Disputes Act, 1947, a right has been given
to the individual workman himself to raise
an industrial dispute with regard to
termination,
discharge,
dismissal,
or
retrenchment of his service, even though no
other workman or any trade union of
workmen raises it or is a party to the
dispute.
Contd.
Patterson observes: "Industrial strikes/disputes
constitute militant and organized protests against
existing industrial conditions. They are symptoms of
a discorded system.
The industrial unrest, thus, takes an organized form
when the work people make common cause of their
grievances against employers by way of strikes,
demonstrations, picketing, morchas, gate meetings,
gheraos, etc.
Classification of Industrial
Disputes
The most common practice is to make a
distinction between two main types of
disputes
relating
to
terms
of
employment. They are:
a) disputes that arise out of deadlocks in
the negotiations for a collective
agreement, popularly known as interest
disputes,' and
b) disputes that arise from day-to-day
workers' grievances or complaints,
popularly known as grievance disputes.
Contd.
In addition, in various countries, special provisions
apply to two other types of disputes relating to
organisational rights, namely:
c)
those arising from acts of interference with the
exercise of the right to organise, or acts
commonly known as unfair labour practices,' and
d)
disputes over the right of a trade union to
represent a particular class or category of
workers for purposes of collective bargaining,
simply referred to as recognition disputes.
Details of Classification
a)


Interest Disputes: These disputes are also
called conflicts of interest or economic disputes.
They generally correspond to what in some
countries are called collective labour disputes.
In general, they relate to the determination of
new terms and conditions of employment for
the general body of workers.
In most cases, the disputes originate from trade
union demands or proposals for improvements
in wages, fringe benefits, job security, or other
terms or conditions of employment.
Contd.



These demands or proposals are normally made
with a view to conclude a collective agreement.
Since there are generally no mutually binding
standards that can be relied upon to arrive at a
settlement of interest disputes, recourse must be
made to bargaining power, compromise, and
sometimes, a test of economic strength before the
parties reach an agreed solution.
As the issues in these disputes are
"compromisable" they lend themselves best to
conciliation, and are a matter of give-and-take and
bargaining between the parties.
Contd.
b)


Grievance or Rights Disputes: These
disputes are also known as conflicts of rights
or legal disputes.
They involve individual workers only or a
group of workers in the same group and
correspond largely to what in some countries
are called individual disputes.
They generally arise from day-to-day working
relations in the undertaking, usually as a
protest by the worker or workers concerned
against an act of management that is
considered to violate their rights.
Contd.

The grievances typically arise on such
questions as discipline and dismissal, the
payment of wages and other fringe benefits,
working time, over-time, time-off entitlements,
promotion, demotion, transfer rights of
seniority, rights of supervisors and union
officials, job classification problems, the
relationship of work rules to the collective
agreement and the fulfillment of obligations
relating to safety and health laid down in the
agreement.
Contd.
In some countries, grievances arise
especially over the interpretation and
application of collective agreements. The
grievance disputes are, therefore, also
called interpretation disputes.
 Such grievances, if not dealt with in
accordance with a procedure that is
respected by the parties, often result in·
embitterment of the working relationship
and a climate of industrial strife.

Contd.
There is a definite standard for setting
a grievance dispute - the relevant
provision of the collective agreement,
employment contract, works rules or
law, or custom or usage.
 In many countries, Labour Courts or
Tribunals adjudicate over grievance
disputes. In other words, government
encourages voluntary arbitration for
their settlement.

Contd.
c)

Disputes Over Unfair Labour Practices: The
most common unfair labour practices in industrial
relations parlance are attempts
by the
management of an undertaking to discriminate
against workers on the ground that they are trade
union members or participate in trade union
activity.
In most cases, the objects of this discriminatory
treatment are union officials or representatives
employed in the undertaking, and trade union
members who have actively participated in strikes.
Contd.

Other unfair labour practices are generally
concerned with interference, restraint or
coercion of employees when they exercise
their right to organise, join or assist a union,
establishment
of
employer-sponsored
unions, refusal to bargain collectively, in
good faith, with the recognized union;
recruiting new employees during a strike
which is not an illegal strike; failure to
implement an award, settlement or
agreement; indulging in acts of force or
violence, etc.
Contd.
These unfair labour practices are also
known in various countries as trade union
victimisation. In many countries, a special
procedure exists under the law for the
prevention of such practices. Such a
procedure
obviates
or
precludes
conciliation.
 In the absence of such procedure, disputes
are settled according to the normal
procedure laid down under the Disputes
Act.

Contd.
d)
Recognition Disputes: This type of
dispute arises when the management of
an undertaking or employer's organisation
refuses to recognise a trade union for the
purpose of collective bargaining.
Contd.



Issues in recognition disputes differ according to the
cause which has led the management to refuse
recognition.
It may be that the management dislikes trade unions
and will not have anything to do with a trade union;
the problem is then of attitude, as in the case of trade
union victimisation.
However, the management's refusal may be on the
ground that the union requesting recognition is not
sufficiently representative, or that there are several
unions in the undertaking making conflicting claims to
recognition.
Contd.



In such a case, the resolution of the issue may
depend on the existence or non-existence of rules
for determining the representative character of a
trade union for the purpose of collective bargaining.
Such rules need not necessarily be laid down by
law; they may be conventional or derived from
prevailing practices in the country.
In many countries, guidelines for trade union
recognition have been laid down in voluntary Codes
of Discipline or Industrial Relations Charters
accepted by employers' and workers' organisations.
Impact of Industrial Disputes
The consequences of industrial disputes
are very far-reaching, for they disturb
the economic, social and political life
of a country.
The workers, the employers, the
consumers, the community and the
nation suffer in more than one way.
Various impacts
1.


Industrial disputes result in a huge
wastage of mandays and dislocation in the
production work. A strike in a public utility
service disorganizes public life and throws
the economy out of gear; and consumers
are subjected to untold hardships.
the short supply of consumer goods
results in sky-rocketing prices, and leads
to their non-availability in the open market.
The workers are also badly affected in
more than one ways.
Contd.
2.

The employers suffer heavy losses, not
only through stoppages of production,
reduction in sales and loss of markets but
also in the form of huge expenditure
incurred on crushing strikes, engaging
strike-breakers and blacklegs maintaining a
police force and guards;
Apart from these losses, the loss of mental
peace, respect and status in society cannot
be computed not in terms of money.
Contd.
3.

The public/society, too, is not spared,
industrial unrest creates law and order
problems, necessitating increased vigilance
on the part of the state.
Further, even when disputes are settled,
strife and bitterness continue to linger,
endangering social relations.
Contd.
4.


Industrial disputes also affect the
national economy.
Prof. Pigou has observed:
When labour and equipment in the
whole or any part of an industry are
rendered idle by a strike or lockout,
national dividend must suffer in a
way that injures economic welfare ....
It may happen in two ways.
Contd.



On the one hand, it impoverishes the people
actually involved in the stoppage, it lessens the
demand for the goods the other industries make;
on the other hand, if the industry in which the
stoppage has occurred is one that furnishes a
commodity or service largely used in the conduct
of other industries, it lessens the supply to them of
raw material or equipment for their work.
This results in a loss of output, ultimately reducing
the national income. Hence developmental
activities cannot be undertaken for want of
necessary finances.