Q.3. Trace the history of Trade Union Movement in India. (AKTU. 2010 - 11)
Ans. The history of Trade Union Movement in India: -
The trade union movement started in India immediately after the end of the First World War even though many welfare organisations existed before the war for improving the lot of workers. In 1929 a split was caused and a new union under the name of Indian Trade Union Federation was formed.
Severa1 factors gave encouragement to the development of trade unionism in India, viz., (1) Non-cooperation movement (1920-21) of Gandhiji and his support to the demands of industrial labour ; (2) Enactment of the Trade Unions Act, 1926 which accorded legal status to trade unions; (3) Change in economic-political conditions of the country after the Second World War.
In the post-independence period, trade unionism experienced brisk and unprecedented volume of activity. Workers got support from both the society at large and government. In particular, the result was that the unionisation of workers increased significantly.
However, while analysing the extent of trade unionism in India, the major problem is regarding accurate data. The unions show exaggerated figures of their membership so as to claim the representative character. Besides very few unions submit returns. And whenever unions do so, they are not consistent. Both unions and union membership have been rising continuously over the years.
One of the important reasons responsible for this is political influence. Various parties with a view to making inroads among workers tried to bring workers within the folds of unions. Although this caused the problem of multiplicity of unions, it did increase the extent of unionisation and make workers aware of the usefulness of this instrument.
A few of the trade unions are big in size, but most of them are very small. As a result, the size of Indian unions in general is very small. In India, presently about 75% of unions are with members less than 500.
Q.4. Describe the main causes of industrial dispute and analyze them.
Ans. The causes of industrial disputes can be broadly classified into two categories: economic and non-economic causes. The economic causes will include issues relating to compensation like wages, bonus, allowances, and conditions for work, working hours, leave and holidays without pay, unjust layoffs and retrenchments. The non economic factors will include victimization of workers, ill treatment by staff members, sympathetic strikes, political factors, indiscipline etc.
Wages and allowances: -
Since the cost of living index is increasing, workers generally bargain for higher wages to meet the rising cost of living index and to increase their standards of living. In 2002, 21.4% of disputes were caused by demand of higher wages and allowances. This percentage was 20.4% during 2003 and during 2004 increased up to 26.2%. In 2005, wages and allowances accounted for 21.8% of disputes.
Personnel and retrenchment: -
The personnel and retrenchment have also been an important factor which accounted for disputes. During the year 2002, disputes caused by personnel were 14.1% while those caused by retrenchment and layoffs were 2.2% and 0.4% respectively. In 2003, a similar trend could be seen, wherein 11.2% of the disputes were caused by personnel, while 2.4% and 0.6% of disputes were caused by retrenchment and layoffs. In year 2005, only 9.6% of the disputes were caused by personnel, and only 0.4% were caused by retrenchment.
Indiscipline and violence: -
From the given table, it is evident that the number of disputes caused by indiscipline has shown an increasing trend. In 2002, 29.9% of disputes were caused because of indiscipline, which rose up to 36.9% in 2003. Similarly in 2004 and 2005, 40.4% and 41.6% of disputes were caused due to indiscipline respectively. During the year 2003, indiscipline accounted for the highest percentage (36.9%) of the total time-loss of all disputes, followed by cause-groups wage and allowance and personnel with 20.4% and11.2% respectively. A similar trend was observed in 2004 where indiscipline accounted for 40.4% of disputes.
Bonus: -
Bonus has always been an important factor in industrial disputes. 6.7% of the disputes were because of bonus in 2002 and 2003 as compared to 3.5% and 3.6% in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
Leave and working hours: -
Leaves and working hours have not been so important causes of industrial disputes. During 2002, 0.5% of the disputes were because of leave and hours of work while this percentage increased to 1% in 2003. During 2004, only 0.4% of the disputes were because of leaves and working hours.
Miscellaneous: -
The miscellaneous factors include
- Inter/Intra Union Rivalry
- Charter of Demands
- Work Load
- Standing orders/rules/service conditions/safety measures
- Non-implementation of agreements and awards etc.
The number of industrial disputes in country has shown slow but steady fall over the past ten years. In 1998, the total number of disputes was 1097 which fell by more than half to 440 in 2006.It is being estimated that this trend will continue in 2007 as well. To support this, only 45 cases of disputes have been recorded during the first four months of 2007. This significant decline is attributed to the serious attempts made by industries to improve industrial relations with their workers. However, a deeper look at the data reveals that the number of mandays (i.e., the industrial unit of production equal to the work one person can produce in a day) lost due to disputes has not come down as significantly. The country, on an average, lost 25.4 million mandays of work annually between 1998 and 2006, which might have affected its industrial output.
More than 2.14 lakh mandays were lost due to work stoppages in 23 industrial disputes during January to March 2007. Though there has been a decline in the number of strikes, the country still witnessed some major strikes between 2004 and 2006, like those in Honda, Escorts, Apollo, and Skumars factories and in SBI bank.
On analyzing the data sector wise, it is clear that the private sector has witnessed greater number of disputes as compared to the public sector. In 2005, only 57 disputes were recorded in public sector which resulted in a wage loss of 79 Crores. In contrast to this, 399 disputes were recorded in the private sector. In the recent past, maximum number of disputes has been recorded in the manufacturing, agriculture and mining and quarrying industries.
