THE INDIAN TRADE UNIONS (AMENDMENT) BILL 115
autonomy had come into existence, had inaugurated a system of collaboration between the centre and the provinces and one of the means adopted for collaboration was to inaugurate what were called Labour Ministers’ Conferences. The First Labour Ministers’ Conference was held in 1940 when this subject was discussed between the Provincial Governments and the Central Government. It was then decided that there was not enough material before the Conference to come to any definite conclusion on the matter and the Conference gave instructions to the Central Government that the matter should be referred to the Provincial Governments in order to elicit opinion from the Provnicial Governments as well as leaders of labour and employers and that the material should be placed at the second session of the Labour Ministers’ Conference which was proposed to be held in the year 1941. Accordingly the Government of India addressed a letter to the Provincial Governments asking them to collect the opinions of the different parties relating to this measure, and a very large body of opinion was collected by the different Provincial Governments and forwarded to the Central Government with the opinions of the different provinces on them. The whole of this was placed before the Labour Ministers’ Conference held in 1941 and the conclusion reached then was that the Central Government should undertake legislation, that that legislation should not be purely provincial and that draft should be prepared on the basis of the replies that were received from the Provincial Governments and from the various parties which were concerned with this matter. As a result of this the Government of India undertook the task and the present Bill is really the result of the sifting of the information which the Central Government received and the opinions which were expressed by the various parties concerned. This is the origin of the measure. This will explain why, although labour legislation is a provincial subject, the Central Government has come in with this measure.
I do not think that it is necessary for me to say anything further on this measure. As I have said, the proposals are tentative, there is no finality, and there cannot be any finality unless and until we receive opinions on the draft Bill as it stands. All that I say is that it is one of the most important measures which this Legislature has been invited to undertake. It is also a unique measure. Except in the case of the