THE INDUSTRIAL

EMPLOYMENT(STANDIN
G ORDERS) ACT, 1946
This act requires the employers to define with sufficient precision the
conditions of employment under them and to make the said conditions
known to the workmen by them.
OBJECTIVES
• Define ‘service rules’ or ‘service conditions’ for workmen.
• Provides punishment for workmen in a disciplinary action.
• To foster harmonious relations between employers and employees.
• To provide statutory sanctity and importance to standing orders.
• To minimize exploitation of the workers.
• To promote industrial peace and harmony.
Short Title, Scope and Commencement
(section1)
• This act may be called the Industrial Employment (standing Orders)
Act, 1946.
• It extends to the whole of India.
• It applies to every industrial establishment which employs on any day
100 or more workmen is required to adopt a standing order specifying
the conditions of employment of its workers.
• It came into force on 23rd April 1946.
Act not apply to certain Industrial establishments
• Fundamental and supplementary rules.
• Civil Services rules
• Revised leave rules
• Civil Services regulations
• Civilians in Defense Services
• Indian Railway establishment code
Definitions
1. “appellate authority” means an authority appointed by the
appropriate Government by notification in the Official Gazette to
exercise in such area as may be specified in the notification the
functions of an appellate authority under this

Act : Provided that in relation to an appeal pending before an Industrial

Court or other authority immediately before the commencement of the
Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Amendment Act, 1963, that
Court or authority shall be deemed to be the appellate authority:]
2.“appropriate Government” means in respect of industrial establishments under the
control of the Central Government or a 11[Railway administration] or in a major
Port, mine or oil field, the Central Government, and in all other in all other cases
the State Government :
12[Provided that where question arises as to whether any industrial establishment is
under the control of the Central industrial establishment is under the control of the
Central Government that Government may, either on a reference made to it by the
employer or the workman or a trade union or other representative body of the
workmen, or on its own motion and after giving the parties an opportunity of
being heard, decide the question and such decision shall be final and binding on
the parties
3.“Certifying Officer” means a Labour Commissioner or a Regional
Labour Commissioner, and includes any other officer appointed by the
appropriate Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to
perform all or any of the functions of a Certifying Officer under this
Act:]
4. “employer” means the owner of an industrial establishment to which
this Act for the time being applies, and includes
(i) in a factory, any person named under 14[clause (f) of sub-section (1)
of Section 7 of the Factories Act,1948], as manager of the factory;
(ii) in any industrial establishment under the control of any department
of any Government in India, the authority appointed by such
Government in this behalf, or where no authority is so appointed, the
head of the department;
(iii) in any other industrial establishment, any person responsible to the
owner for the supervision and control of the industrial establishment;
5. “industrial establishment” means
(i) an industrial establishment as defined in clause (ii) of Section 2 of the
Payment of Wages Act, 1936, or 15[
(ii) a factory as defined in clause (m) of Section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948,
or ]
(iii) a railway as defined in clause (4) of Section 2 of the Indian Railway Act,
1890, or
(iv) the establishment of a person who, for the purpose of fulfilling a
contract with
the owner of any industrial establishment, employs workmen;
6. “prescribed’ means prescribed by rules made by the appropriate
Government under this Act ;
7. “ standing orders” means rules relating to matters set out in the
Schedule:
8. “trade union” means a trade union for the time being registered
under the Indian Trade Union Act, 1926;
16[(i) “wages” and “workman” have the meanings respectively
assigned to them in clauses (rr) and (s) of Section 2 of the Industrial
Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947)
Procedure for Approval of Standing
Orders
Procedure for submission of Draft standing orders
• Within six months from the date on which this act becomes
applicable to an industrial establishment, the employer shall submit
to the certifying Officer five copies of the draft standing orders
proposed by him for adoption in his industrial establishment.
• Provision shall be made in such draft for every matter set out in the
Schedule which may be applicable to the industrial establishment and
where model standing orders have been prescribed,shall be so far as
it practicable, in conformity with such model.
• The draft Standing orders submitted under this section shall be
accompanied by a statement giving prescribed particulars of the
workmen employed in the industrial establishment including the
name of the trade union if any to which they belong.
• Subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, a group of
employers in similar in similar industrial establishment may submit a
joint draft of standing orders under this section.
Conditions for certification of draft
standing orders(section 4)
Conditions
1. If provision is made therein for every matter set out in the Schedule
which is applicable to the Industrial Establishment; and
2. If the standing orders are otherwise in conformity with the
provisions of this Act and it shall be the function of the certifying
Officer or appellate authority to adjudicate upon the fairness or
reasonableness of the provisions of any standing orders.
Certification of Standing Orders
(1) On receipt of the draft under Section3, the Certifying Officer shall
forward a copy thereof to the trade union, if any, of the workmen, or
where there is no such trade union, if any, of the workmen or where
there is no trade union, to the workmen in such manner as may be
prescribed, together with a notice in the prescribed form requiring
objections, if any, which the workmen may desire to make to the draft
standing orders to be submitted to him within fifteen days from the
receipt of the notice
(2) After giving the employer and the trade union or such other
representatives of the workmen as may be prescribed an opportunity
of being heard, the Certifying Officer shall decide whether or not any
modification of or addition to the draft submitted by the employer is
necessary to render the draft standing orders certifiable under this Act,
and shall make an order in writing accordingly.
(3) The Certifying Officer shall thereupon certify the draft standing
orders, after making any modifications there in which his order under
sub-section (2) may require, and shall within seven days thereafter send
copies of the certified standing orders authenticated in the prescribed
manner and of his order under sub-section (2) to the employer and to
the trade union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen.
Appeals(section 6)
The appellate Authority shall within seven days of its order send copies
of the draft standing order to the certifying Officer, employer, Trade
union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen. In cases the
Appellate Authority makes any modifications in the draft standing
order, it shall send a copy of the amended standing order along with his
order. But no such copy needs to be sent by him if no modification has
been made by him in the draft standing order.
Date of Operation of Standing
Orders(section 7)
The standing orders certified by the certifying Officer shall, unless an
appeal is preferred, come into operation the expiry of 30 days from the
date on which authenticated copies are sent. If an appeal is preferred,
it shall come into operation on the expiry of seven days from the date
on which copies of the orders of the Appellate Authority are sent.
Register of standing orders.
A copy of all standing orders as finally certified under this Act shall be
filed by the Certifying Officer in a register in the prescribed form
maintained for the purpose, and the Certifying Officer shall furnish a
copy there of to any person applying there for on payment of the
prescribed fee.
Posting of standing orders
The text of the standing orders as finally certified under this Act shall be
prominently posted by the employer in English and in the language
understood by the majority of his workmen on special boards to be
maintained for the purpose at or near the entrance through which the
majority of the workmen enter the industrial establishment and in all
departments thereof where the workmen are employed.
Modification of standing orders
Standing orders finally certified under this Act shall not, except on agreement between the
employer and the workmen 20[or a trade union or other representative body of the workmen] be
liable to modification until the expiry of six months from the date on which the standing orders or
the last modifications thereof came in to operation.
Subject to the provisions of sub-section (1), an employer or workman 22[or a trade union or other
representative body of the workmen] may apply to the Certifying Officer to have the standing orders
modified, and such application shall be accompanied by five copies of the modifications proposed
to be made, and where such modifications are proposed to be made by agreement between the
employer and the workmen 19[or a trade union or other representative body of the workmen], a
certified copy of that agreement shall be filed along with the application.]
The foregoing provisions of this Act shall apply in respect of an application under sub-section (2) as
they apply to the certification of the first standing orders.
Nothing contained in sub-section (2) shall apply to an industrial establishment in respect of which
the appropriate Government is the Government of the State of Gujarat or the Government of the
State of Maharashtra.]
10-A. Payment of subsistence allowance
(1) Where any workman is suspended by the employer pending
investigation or inquiry into complaints or charges of misconduct against
him, the employer shall pay to such workman subsistence allowance-
(a) at the rate of fifty per cent of the wages which workman was entitled
to immediately preceding the date of such suspension, for the first ninety
days of suspension; and
(b) At the rate of seventy-five per cent of such wages for the remaining
period of suspension if the delay in the completion of disciplinary
proceedings against such workman is not directly attributable to the
conduct of such workman.
(2) If any dispute arises regarding the subsistence allowance payable to a workman
under sub-section (1), the workman or the employer concerned may refer the dispute to
the Labour Court, constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947),
within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the industrial establishment wherein such
workman is employed is situate and the Labour Court to which the dispute is so referred
shall, after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard, decide the dispute and such
decision shall be final and binding on the parties.
(3) Not with standing anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this section,
where provisions relating to payment of subsistence allowance under any other law for
the time being in force in any State are more beneficial than the provisions of this section,
the provisions of such other law shall be applicable to the payment of subsistence
allowance in that State.]
Enforcement of the Act
Power of certifying Officers (Section 11 (1))
1. Receiving evidence.
Correction of clerical or Arithmetical
Mistakes [Section 11(2)]
Clerical or Arithmetical Mistakes in any order passed by a certifying
Officer or appellate authority, or errors arising therein from any
accidental slip, or omission may, at any time, be corrected by that
Officer or authority or the successor in office of such officer or
authority, as the case may be.
Oral evidence in contradiction of standing
orders not admissible.
No oral evidence having the effect of adding to or otherwise varying or
contradicting standing orders finally certified under this Act shall be
admitted in any Court.
Temporary Application of Model standing
orders [Section 12-A]
Not withstanding anything contained in section 3 to 12 for the period
commencing on the date on which this Act becomes applicable to an
industrial establishment and ending with the date on which the
standing orders as finally certified under this act come into operation
under section 7 in that establishment.
• Thank You