This
edition of the Publication entitled “Industrial Disputes in India during the
Year 2003” is based on the statistics of Industrial Disputes as a result of
temporary stoppages of work either by the employees of an establishment who
resort to Strikes to express a grievance or to enforce a demand or by an
employer (or a group of employers) who withhold work from the employees in an
establishment in connection with matters relating to employment or
non-employment or terms of employment. Thus, both the types of work-stoppages
known as Strikes and Lockouts take place as and when there is lack of mutual
understanding, difference of opinion and failure of dealing between the
managements and the workers / Labour Trade Unions. The conflicts between the
managements and workers are bound to come as both are active and conscious
factors of production and hence know about there gains and losses in economic
activities.
State Labour Departments and Regional Labour Commissioners (Central) collect the basic information in respect of the work stoppages in the State and Central Spheres respectively. They collect the required information on uniform lines laid down for the purpose from the units under their jurisdiction whenever such occurrence of a work-stoppage becomes known either directly or from the police records as per the practice in vogue in different States / areas. This information is collected on a voluntary basis and furnished by the aforesaid authorities in consolidated monthly returns so as to reach the Labour Bureau by 25th of the each succeeding month.
Labour Bureau receives information in respect of only those temporary
work-stoppages which include (a) strikes, (b) lockouts, and (c) gheraos
followed by lockouts and involving 10 or more workers, whether directly and/or
indirectly. Smaller work-stoppages
i.e., those involving less than 10 workers are not included in these statistics.
Similarly, political strikes, sympathetic demonstrations etc., are not included,
as they are not in any way connected with any specific grievance or demand of
the workers and are beyond the competence of their employers for redressal.
The data for such work- stoppages is compiled and published separately in
the publication.
Labour Bureau organizes every year a training programme for the benefit
of concerned officers from the States / UTs. and concerned Central agencies, to
ensure correct filling of the schedules and to bring conceptual clarity. It has
come to the notice of the Labour Bureau that in certain cases relevant
guidelines are not strictly being followed by a few States / Union Territories
officials while submitting the returns to the Labour Bureau. It has also been
the experience of the Bureau that the clarifications to its scrutiny letters
sometimes are received very late. Since the Bureau has to finalise the all-India
statistics to make available the Policy makers and researchers within stipulated
dissemination standards, it becomes very difficult for Labour Bureau to wait for
the clarifications indefinitely. Hence, it has to have a cut-off date after
which it finalises the data even if it does not receive the pending information
/ clarification on the subject.
The two most
important components of the statistics on Industrial Disputes are:
firstly, the maximum number of workers affected directly or indirectly on
any one day during the entire period of the work-stoppage and secondly, the
number of man-days lost which is obtained by adding up the actual resultant
absences caused directly or indirectly by the work-stoppages, in each shift of
the potential working day (excluding weekly-off and other scheduled holidays
when the establishments would have otherwise remained closed even if no work
stoppages had taken place). The other components are (i) the number of disputes,
(ii) duration of a dispute, (iii) wages lost and (iv) the value of production
loss. It is also important to understand that the statistics relating to the
number of disputes and duration are two independent variables, while the
statistics of workers involved, man-days lost, wages lost and the value of
production loss are mainly dependent for their increase or decrease upon the two
aforesaid independent variables.
This publication in the annual series relates to the year 2003. This is
based on the monthly returns furnished by the concerned authorities and includes
all supplementary information received in the Bureau till 15th
September 2004. These statistics are presented in four Parts. ‘Part-A’
presents a brief numeric comparison of the industrial disputes and the resultant
man-days lost which occurred in the country during the years 2003 and 2002. In
‘Part-B’ a detailed analysis of the work stoppages, which took place during
2003 by months, states, industries etc. for the public and private sectors taken
together, has been presented. In addition to this, All India Strikes / Lockouts
and number of cases of Go-Slow are also presented in different sequences.
‘Part-C’ contains an analysis of the work-stoppages, which took place during
2003 in the public sector alone. ‘Part-D’ deals with the statistics relating
to Political / Sympathetic Strikes, Gheraos and Disputes due to reasons other than Industrial Disputes.