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Labour Laws

Notes 1.1 Approach to Labour Law and Labour Relations

Labour law seeks to regulate the relations between an employer or a class of employers and their
employees. The access of this law is the widest, in that it touches the lives of far more people,
indeed millions of men & women as compared to any other branch of law and this is the aspect
which makes it the most fascinating of all branches of law and the study of this subject is of
enormous dimension and of ever changing facets.
There has been a remarkable change in the approach to Labour law and industrial relations
since the World War II Philadelphia Charter adopted in 1944 provided that “Labour is not a
commodity” and that “poverty anywhere is a danger to prosperity everywhere”. W. Friedmann
and others who have tried to analyse the essential characteristics of the legal development in this
branch of law consider ‘social-duty’ on the part of employer as the main bed rock on which this
law is built. This is exemplified by the very approach of law makers to the construction of a wage
packet of the working man in the post-second World War period, wage fixation and legislation
relating to condition of work. The Indian Constitution lays down broad guidelines to be followed
by State.

Did u know? The Supreme Court in D.N. Banerji v. P.R. Mukherjee, AIR 1953 SC 58 stated
that the law as developed after the second World War, particularly in a welfare State has
reversed the theories of Sir Henry Maine and now society progresses form contract to
status and the post war world has seen considerable legislation laying down conditions of
service and also ensuring by laws payment of minimum wages.

1.1.1 Basis of Labour Relations Law

Otto Kahn-Freund in his book on Labour and the Law makes the following points:
(i) The system of collective bargaining rests on a balance of the collective forces of
management and organised labour. The contribution which the courts have made to
the orderly development of collective labour relations has been infinitesimal. Collective
bargaining is a process by which the terms of employment and conditions of service are
determined by agreement between management and the union. In effect, “It is a business
deal (which) determines the price of labour services and terms and conditions of labour’s
employment.”
(ii) The Law governing labour relation is one of the central branches of the law on which the
very large majority of people earn their living. Nonetheless, law is a secondary force in
human relations and especially in labour relations.
(iii) Law is a technique for the regulation of social power. This is true of labour law as it is of
other aspects of any legal system. Labour Law also seeks to lay down minimum standard of
employment. It lays down norms by which basic conditions of labour are fulfilled such as
maximum working hours, minimum safety conditions, minimum provisions for holidays
and leave protection for women and children from arduous labour, prohibition of children
below certain age from employment and provision for minimum standards of separation
benefits and certain provision for old age.

1.1.2 Purpose of Labour Legislation

Labour legislation that is adapted to the economic and social challenges of the modern world of
work fulfils three crucial roles:
(i) It establishes a legal system that facilitates productive individual and collective employment
relationships, and therefore a productive economy;

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