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Unit 10: Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

5. For purposes of this act the term ........................................... is defined as dispute or difference Notes
between employers and employees, which is connected with the employment and non-
employment or the terms of employment or with the condition of labour of any person.-
section 2(k).
6. Sec. 2 (s) defines ........................................... as any person (including an apprentice) employed
in any industry to do any skilled, unskilled manual, supervisory, operational, technical or
clerical work for hire or reward.

10.3 Authorities under this Act

Following are the Authorities under the Industrial Disputes Act:

1. Works Committee

In the case of any industrial establishment in which one hundred or more workmen are employed
or have been employed on any day in the preceding twelve months, the appropriate Government
may by general or special order require the employer to constitute in the prescribed manner a
Works Committee consisting of representatives of employers and workmen engaged in the
establishment so however that the number of representatives of workmen on the Committee
shall not be less than the number of representatives of the employer. The representatives of the
workmen shall be chosen in the prescribed manner from among the workmen engaged in the
establishment and in consultation with their trade union, if any, registered under the Indian
Trade Unions Act, 1926 (16 of 1926).

Notes It shall be the duty of the Works Committee to promote measures for securing and
preserving amity and good relations between the employer and workmen and, to that
end, to comment upon matters of their common interest or concern and endeavour to
compose any material difference of opinion in respect of such matters.

2. Conciliation Officers

The appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint such number
of persons as it thinks fit, to be conciliation officers, charged with the duty of mediating in and
promoting the settlement of industrial disputes. A conciliation officer may be appointed for a
specified area or for specified industries in a specified area or for one or more specified industries
and either permanently or for a limited period.

3. Boards of Conciliation

The appropriate Government may as occasion arises by notification in the Official Gazette
constitute a Board of Conciliation for promoting the settlement of an industrial dispute. A Board
shall consist of a chairman and two or four other members, as the appropriate Government
thinks fit. The chairman shall be an independent person and the other members shall be persons
appointed in equal numbers to represent the parties to the dispute and any person appointed to
represent a party shall be appointed on the recommendation of that party:
Provided that, if any party fails to make a recommendation as aforesaid within the prescribed
time, the appropriate Government shall appoint such persons as it thinks fit to represent that
party.

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