34
* Standing Labour Committee Discusses Recognition of Trade Unions
Proposals to secure compulsory recognition of Trade Unions and the appointment and constitution of boards of recognition, as embodied in the Indian Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill,
1943, were discussed at the fifth meeting of the Standing Labour Committee held in New Delhi on June 27. The Hon’ble Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Labour member, Government of India, presided.
The employers’ and the workers’ representatives explained their views on the criterion for judging the representativeness of a trade union.
While the employers’ representatives generally favoured the idea of bringing together employers and workers, they seemed to be of the opinion that this co-operation should be on a voluntary and non-legal basis. It was stated that with the healthy growth of trade unions, there would be no difficulty as regards recognition. The workers’ representatives favoured the idea of compulsory recognition and at the same time pleaded that the scope of the amending bill should be widened to confer more rights and privileges on trade unions.
Statistics of Trade Disputes
The Committee then discussed a proposal to improve the existing statistics of trade disputes in order to have uniformity in the method of compilation and to improve their utility for purposes of comparison as between provinces in India and with other countries. It was suggested that the machinery provided by the Industrial Statistics Act of 1942 empowering the Provincial Governments to secure statistics should be utilised. This procedure would be, moreover, on the lines of the system
- Indian Information, July 15, 1944, pp. 53 & 57.