๐ Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
✅ Purpose:
The Act provides a legal framework to investigate and resolve industrial disputes between employers and employees, promote industrial peace, and ensure fair labor practices.
✅ Key Objectives:
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Prevent illegal strikes and lockouts
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Provide mechanisms for dispute settlement (conciliation, arbitration, adjudication)
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Protect workers’ rights during layoffs, retrenchments, and closures
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Promote harmonious employer-employee relations
๐ Important Definitions
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Industrial Dispute → Dispute between employers & employees or between workmen & workmen, connected with employment or conditions of labor.
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Industry → Any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture, or service (with some exceptions).
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Workman → Any person employed in an industry to do manual, skilled, technical, operational, clerical, or supervisory work for hire or reward.
⚙️ Key Provisions
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Section 2A: Individual workman’s dispute is treated as an industrial dispute.
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Chapter II: Authorities → Works Committee, Conciliation Officers, Boards of Conciliation, Courts of Inquiry, Labor Courts, Industrial Tribunals, National Tribunals.
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Chapter V: Strikes & Lockouts → Rules for legality, notice periods, penalties for illegal strikes/lockouts.
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Section 25F: Conditions for retrenchment (notice, compensation, reasons).
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Chapter V-B: Special provisions for large establishments (100+ workers) regarding layoffs, retrenchment, and closure (prior government approval required).
⚖️ Authorities Under the Act
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Conciliation Officer: Tries to mediate disputes before they escalate.
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Labor Court: Decides on disputes related to discharge, dismissal, retrenchment, etc.
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Industrial Tribunal: Deals with broader matters like wages, allowances, hours of work.
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National Tribunal: Handles disputes involving national interest.
๐จ Penalties
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Illegal strikes or lockouts → Fine and/or imprisonment
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Breach of settlement/award → Fine and/or imprisonment
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Failure to comply with layoff/retrenchment/closure rules → Heavy penalties
๐ Recent Developments
Note: The Industrial Disputes Act is being gradually replaced by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, which consolidates and updates multiple labor laws. However, until the new code is fully notified and implemented, the 1947 Act still applies.
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