The relationship of employee and employer was formed during the era of industrial revolution. The master could engage a worker or fire him from the job, at his free will. The system of industrial life had its uncertainty. In order to protect the weaker section of workmen from the capricious actions of the managements governments all over the world had to step in or rein in the managements of industrial undertakings to pay some sort of compensation when workmen are retrenched for want of jobs.
The introduction of modern technology displaced many skilled labor in a considerable way. This upset the applecart as few people could get jobs against several people working before the introduction of new technologies. The company managements argued that they could employ or keep people on jobs so long as their services were competent enough in the competitive market. Since both the parties, employees and employers, have their own lines of arguments, the Government of India decided to protect the labor and at the same time laid restrictions on the management's right to fire workmen and keep with itself the power to grant retrenchment or layoff or closing down of industrial undertakings when approached by industrial undertakings.
The
Industrial Disputes (ID) Act is considered the Magna Carta
of industrial legislations. It was introduced in 1947 to regulate
the relationship between the company management and the labor.
It deals with the whole gamut of industrial relations between
the labor and the management. The Act provides for settlement
of industrial disputes through establishment of Works Committee
and through the series of dispute settlement mechanisms like
Conciliation Officers, Board of Conciliation, Court of Inquiry,
etc. |
