Page 188 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Unit 7: Dispute Resolution and Industrial Harmony

be enforced after taking into consideration the situation and the capacity of the employees Notes
to resist. On occasion, there is a tendency or compulsion to blindly follow others. In this
view of the matter, the employees who went on strike may be reinstated in service.
Finally it is made clear that employees who are reinstated in service would take care in the
future, in maintaining discipline as there is no question of having any fundamental, legal
or equitable right to go on strike. The employees have to adopt alternative methods for
redressal of their grievances. For those employees who are not reinstated in service on the
ground that FIRs are lodged against them or after holding any departmental enquiry
penalty is imposed, it would be open to them to challenge the same before the administrative
tribunal and the tribunal would pass appropriate order including interim order within a
period of two weeks from the date of filing such application before it. It is unfortunate that
the concerned authorities are not making the administrative tribunals under the
Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985, functional and effective by appointing men of caliber.
It is for the High Court to see that if the administrative tribunals are not functioning ,
justice should not be denied to the affected persons. In case, the administrative tribunal is
not functioning, it would be open to the employees to approach the High Court. Lastly,
we make it clear that we have not at all dealt with the considered constitutional validity of
the Tamil Nadu Essential services Maintenance Act, 2002 and the Tamil Nadu Ordinance
No. 3 of 2003 or interpretation of any of the provisions thereof, as the State Government
has gracefully agreed to reinstate most of the employees who had gone on strike. For this
we appreciate the efforts made and the reasonable stand taken by the learned counsel for
the parties. Further we have not dealt with the grievances of the employees against various
orders issued by the State Government affective to their service benefits. We hope that the
government would try to consider the same appropriately.

7.8 Grievance Handling

In employment relationships both employer and employee have mutual expectations. When an
employee's expectations are not fulfilled he will have a grouse against the employer because of
the disagreement or dissatisfaction it causes. Similarly when employer's expectations about an
employee are not fulfilled, the employer will have a grouse against such employee. It may be a
problem of indiscipline.
An aggrieved employee is a potent source of indiscipline and bad working. According to Julius,
a grievance is "any discontent or dissatisfaction, whether expressed or not, whether valid or not,
arising out of anything connected with the company which an employee thinks, believes or
even feels to be unfair, unjust or inequitable."
7.8.1 Meaning

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines a grievance as a complaint of one or more
workers with respect to wages and allowances, conditions of work and interpretation of service
conditions covering such areas as overtime, leave, transfer, promotion, seniority, job assignment
and termination of service. The National Commission on Labour observed that "complaints
affecting one or more individual workers in respect of their wage payments, overtime, leave
transfer, promotion, seniority, work assignment and discharges would constitute grievances".
It is important to make a distinction between individual grievances and group grievances. If the
issue involved relate to one or a few individual employees, it needs to be handled through a
grievance procedure. But when general issues with policy implications and wider interest are
involved they become the subject matter for collective bargaining. Ideally in individual grievance
redressal, trade union should have less or no role while in grievances of a collective nature and
wider ramifications, trade union need to be involved.

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