Recognition of Trade Union

Methods Of Recognizing Trade Union
Certain criteria has to be complied with for a trade union to be recognised .

ministry of labour and employment prepared their views based on a tripartite
system , based on these views drafts bills were prepared elucidating the criteria for
union registration and recognition, they include
 100 or 10% of the workers, whichever is ;east to be a union instead of any

seven workers.
 craft, category and caste based unions are not be registered or recognised
 the law will provide for recognition and unrecognised union will not have
any rights.
 Meeting of Executive must be held in once in 6 months.
But these draft never took the form of an act though in three occasions it came up
before the government but the day fell before the bill could be discussed.
 The need for state intervention arose for getting unions recognised as the
employers wanted to settle the terms and conditions of the work on the bases
of liberal doctrine of ‘;freedom of contract’ but this freedom of contract has
meaning only when the parties to the contracts are both in the same position
to participate in the contract. ‘ where in the very nature of things parties to a
contract are not similarly placed and is in the position of advantage as
against the other who suffers from the handicap of intial disadvantage...
freedom of contract is bound to work unjustly for the weaker side of the
contract’seeing all these difficulties of the trade union act the Bombay
province before independence enacted the Bombay industrial relations act.
Soon after independence there were many states with provisions of recognition of
trade union and many de facto recognition
Recognition of trade unions can be broadly classified as
 voluntary
 statutory recognition
Recognition by management(Voluntary Recognition)
 For a trade union to be successful it should play an effective role in

collective bargaining, collective bargaining in turn depends upon the
willingness of the employer to recognise the union.
 A union may be strong and stable unless it is recognised by the employer it
will hardly have any impact.

Election by Secret Ballot:
 Under which system, all eligible workers of an establishment may vote for
their chosen union, elections to be conducted by a neutral agent, generally
the Registrar of Unions, in a manner very similar to the conduct of general
elections.
 Once held, the results of the elections would remain valid for a minimum
period, usually two years
 In Food Corporation of India Staff Union vs. Food Corporation of India and
Others, the Supreme Court laid down norms and procedure to be followed
for assessing the representative character of trade unions by the ‘Secret
Ballot’ system.
Check-Off method:
 Under which each individual worker authorises management in writing to

deduct union fees from his wages and credit it to the chosen union.
 This gives management concrete evidene about the respective strengths of the
unions.
 But the system is also prone to manipulation, particularly collision between
management and a favoured union.
 Sometimes, genuine mistakes may occur, particularly when the number of
employees is large.
 It also depends on all unions accepting the method and cooperating in its
implementation.
Verification of union membership

 method by the labour directorate as adopted as a resolution in the same session
of the ILC and used widely in many establishments.
 This process is carried out by the labour directorate, which on the invitation of
unions and management of an organisation or industry, collects particulars of
all unions in a plant, with regard to their registration and membership.
 The claim lists of the unions, their fees books, membership records and
account books are scrutinised for duplicate membership.
 Under a later amendment, unions also with lists of members in order to avoid
dual membership.
 After cross checking of records, physical sampling of workers, particularly in
cases of doubt or duplication, a final verified list is prepared for employers,
unions and the government.
Rule of Thumb intelligent guessing by management or general observationto

assess union strength, either by the response at gate meetings, strikes or
discussions with employees.
 This is not a reliable method, particularly in large estalishments and can also
be subject to change at short intervals.
 When a employer agrees to recognise a trade union then they should draw a
memorandum of agreement between the employer and the officer of the
trade union or their authoritative representative.
such an agreement could cover the following issues:
 bargaining procedure
 how and when meetings will be arranged
 who the employer and union representatives are
 time off for union representatives to attend meetings
 how agreements and disagreements will be communicated to the workforce
 conduct during negotiations - how and when issues can be raised
 the specific matters which will be subject to joint agreement, eg pay and
working hours
 dispute resolution - what should happen if deadlock is reached on a particular
issue, eg conciliation and arbitration
 union recruitment activities in the workplace
 One of the most fast growing method is by the secret ballot system
 In case of food corporation of India the supreme court ordered secret ballot
and mandated the procedure
Criteria for Recognition of Unions under Code of Discipline)
 16th session of ILC held at Nainital in May 1958 adopted the COD for
regonition of TU.
 Where there is more than one union, a union claiming recognition should
have been functioning for at least one year after registration.
 The membership of the union should cover at least 15% of the workers in
the establishment concerned. Membership would be counted only to those
who had paid their subscription for at least three months during the period of
six months immediately preceding the reckoning
 A union may claim to be recognized as a representative union for an industry

in a local area if it has a membership of at least 25% of the workers of that
industry in that area.
 When a union is recognized, there should be no change in its position for a

period of two years.
 Where there are several unions in an industry or establishment, the one with
the largest membership should be recognized.
 A representative union for an industry in an area should have the right to
represent the workers in all the establishments in the industry, but if a union
of workers in a particular establishment has a membership of 50% or more
of the workers of that establishment, it should have the right to deal with
matters of purely local interest such as, for instance, the handling of
grievances pertaining to its own members. All workers who are not members
of that union might either operate through representative union for the
industry or seek redress directly.
 In the case of trade union federations, which are not affiliated to any of the
four central organisations of labour, the question of recognition would have
to be dealt with separately.
 Only unions, which observe Code of Discipline, would be entitled for
recognition
In Balmer Lawrie Workers’ Union, Bombay and Anr. v. Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd.
and Ors., the underlying assumption made by the Supreme Court was that a
recognised union represents all the workmen in the industrial undertaking or in the
industryThe recognised Trade union also has a duty to submit returns to the
registar within the stipulated period of time failure of which would be punishable
with penalty.

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Methods Of Recognizing Trade Union

Certain criteria has to be complied with for a trade union to be recognised .

 100 or 10% of the workers, whichever is ;east to be a union instead of any

Recognition of trade unions can be broadly classified as

 For a trade union to be successful it should play an effective role in

Election by Secret Ballot:

 Under which each individual worker authorises management in writing to

Verification of union membership

Rule of Thumb intelligent guessing by management or general observationto

such an agreement could cover the following issues:

Criteria for Recognition of Unions under Code of Discipline)

 A union may claim to be recognized as a representative union for an industry

 When a union is recognized, there should be no change in its position for a

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