Under pressure from the central trade unions (CTUs), the labour ministry may agree to give more trade unions in an establishment the right to be the negotiating agents during conciliatory talks with the managements.
In the draft Industrial Relations Code, the ministry had suggested that when there are multiple trade unions in an industrial unit, the one having more than 50% of the workers as members would only be recognised as the negotiating agent on behalf of the workers. In case no union has more than 50% strength, then more unions would be called for negotiation, provided their cumulative membership is more than 50% of the unit’s workforce. This has angered the unions who saw their turf being erorded.
At the final tripartite meeting held on Tuesday, the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) had strongly recommended that for every 15% of voters, there should be one representative from a trade union in the negotiation team. Other CTU representatives also voiced reservations on the proposal in the meeting. The ministry has asked CTUs to submit their suggestions in writing within a week.
“Based on their suggestions, there would be some modifications in the draft. Along with some minor changes, the most prominent change that we might bring into the Bill is the provision that deals with the negotiating agent. There we will bring in some changes with the method of identifying the agents. We will consult with the National Commission of Law on this,” said a senior labour ministry official.
This essentially means that the labour ministry is unwilling to budge on other vexed issues such as barring outsiders from becoming office-bearers in the organised sector establishments and putting the cap of two persons per registered trade union in unorganised sector establishments. BMS was not in favour of any change with the current provision in the Act that allows one-third of the trade union office-bearers in the organised sector from outside and 50% in the unorganised sector.
Stating that there would be no further consultation with the CTUs on the draft Bill, the official said the ministry would try to bring the Bill in the forthcoming session of Parliament. “After incorporating the changes required, the Bill would be circulated for inter-ministerial consultations. It would be vetted by the law department before presenting for Cabinet approval. Following this, it would be tabled in Parliament for passage,” he said.
The official said that the Bill has been drafted keeping in mind the interest of both the workers and the industries alike. While an establishment with 300 workers has been given free-hand to resort to closure or retrench workers without government’s approval from the current limit of 100; the retrenchment bonus of 45 days’ wages from the current 15 days.