Page 197 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Labour Legislations

Notes 4. The Commission has recommended that Labour Courts should have final authority in
issues pertaining to labour and jurisdiction of civil courts in this area be banned. By
imposing on the unions the condition of 10 per cent membership to represent labour in
various fora, the Commission has eliminated the role of very small unions parading as
genuine representatives of labour. The idea of establishing an All-India Labour Judicial
Service is welcome.
5. The Commission has guaranteed 8.33 per cent bonus for all employees when it states that
every employer should pay each worker one month's bonus before an appropriate festival.
Any demand in excess of this up to a maximum of 20 per cent of the wages will be subject
to negotiation.
6. The Commission has recommended that the present system of two wage ceilings for
reckoning entitlement and for calculation of bonus should be suitably enhanced to 7,500
and 3,500 for entitlement and calculation respectively. It has presented the minimum
and maximum limits for bonus and permitted freedom to negotiate.
7. The Commission's categorical view that no exemption from labour laws should be allowed
to export promotion zones or special economic zones is further evidence of its sincerity in
implementing the laws.
8. The Commission has recommended that the Government may lay down a list of such
highly paid jobs in the high-wage islands, such as those of air-pilots, who may be declared
as non-workers, or alternatively fix a cut-off limit of remuneration, which is substantially
high (such as 25,000 per month), beyond which employees will not be treated as ordinary
workers. Fixing a cut-off of 25,000 can open a Pandora's box because a very large number
of supervisory and managerial personnel are drawing less than 25,000 per month All
these categories will put pressure on the Government to be included in the category of
workers to get the benefit of labour laws.
9. However, certain recommendations are vague and require further debate and deliberation.
It would be desirable to take up certain issues and clarify them.

The National Commission on Labour has given a statutory backing for the formulation of an
effective grievance procedure which should be simple, flexible, less cumbersome, and more or
less on the lines of the present Model Grievance Procedure. It should be time bound and have a
limited number of steps, say approach to the supervisor, then to the departmental head, and
thereafter representatives. It should be made applicable to only those units which employ more
than 100 workers.
The Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1982 has provided for a reference of certain individual
disputes to grievance of certain individual disputes to grievance settlement authorities. Section
9C of the Act stipulates that in every establishment in which one hundred or more workmen are
employed or have been employed on any day in the preceding twelve months, the employer
shall set up a time-bound grievance redressal procedure. However this particular provision has
not come into force.
A grievance procedure, whether formal or informal, statutory or voluntary, has to ensure that it
gives a sense of satisfaction to the individual worker: a reasonable exercise of authority of the
manager and an opportunity of participation to the unions. The introduction of unions in the
grievance procedure is necessary because ultimately it is the union that is answerable to its
members.
A basic ingredient of the procedure should be that the total number of steps involved should be
limited, not more than four are generally envisaged even in the largest units. A grievance
procedure should normally provide for three steps, namely. (a) approach appeal to the immediate
supervisor, (b) appeal to the department head/manager, (c) appeal to the bipartite grievance

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