Page 10 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Unit 1: Labour Welfare and Concept

circumstances. Therefore, they are specific and not general in orientation, philosophy, and Notes
concept.
2. Labour legislation regards individuals as workers, whereas the general legislation regards
him a citizen. The principles governing labour legislations are more influenced by the
postulates of social justice than general justice. Workers are the weaker class of industrial
society and have suffered long at the hands of employers. Therefore, these sets of legislations
go out of the way in protecting workers and securing justice to them. The influences of
'discriminative justice' and 'distributive justice' can be clearly seen over them. All the
labour legislations are heavily skewed towards labour and they are specifically designed
like that.
3. Labour legislation seeks to deal with problems arising out of occupational status of the
individual. Consequently, such problems as hours of work, wages, working conditions,
trade unions, industrial disputes etc. come to be the main subject matter of labour
legislations. Thus, the behaviour of the individual or his groups is the function of labour
legislation as of any other legislation. But under labour legislation, the individual is
affected in the capacity of a worker or an employer. Therefore, the persons who are
neither the employers nor the workers are least affected directly by labour legislation. To
make the point clear, a few examples are necessary. A legislation regarding working
conditions such as the factory legislation or laws regarding payment of wages or
compensation for work injury or employment of women or children impinges upon the
individuals as workers and the employers. On the contrary, a law regarding ownership of
property or a law relating to the marriage or sales tax affects him as a citizen.
4. Individuals have different roles to perform and different laws are designed for regulating
the different roles. It is the role-relation that determines whether a particular legislation
falls under the category of labour legislation, social legislation or general legislation. All
these legislations try to meet the specific objectives of their respective target groups that
are (a) to provide subsistence, (b) to aim at abundance, (c) to encourage equality, and (d) to
maintain security.
5. As labour legislations are to regulate the conditions of labour in the industrial milieu, it
is required to be adjusted as per the changing requirements of industry. This has to be
done more frequently than the general legislation where changes are not that swift. Unless
labour legislations are subjected to frequent revision and not left to continue as they are,
they become obsolete and irrelevant. The Indian Labour Legislations are the best example.
Most of them have become outdated as the required revisions have not been affected and
gaps have been created between the expectation of industrial society and the institution of
labour legislation.
6. (a) Not only contractual obligations, but beyond it by creating new rights and
obligations.
(b) Labour Law can operate along with General Law. A 'theft' can be dealt by Labour
Law as well as IPC
(c) No jurisdiction of civil courts

1.5 Principles of Modern Labour Legislation

The principles of labour legislation have been categorized as social justice, social welfare, national
economy and international solidarity.

1. The principle of social justice includes: abolition of servitude, freedom of association,
collective bargaining and industrial conciliation.

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