Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

20. The following acts and omissions shall be treated as misconduct and punishment shall be accorded in accordance with standing order 21.

(i) * * *

(ii) Striking work either singly or with other workers without fourteen days' notice.

(iii) * * *

16. By orders of the certifying officer (annexure D to the writ petition) this clause was deleted. It was held by the certifying officer that the clause cannot be made a cause of misconduct, because strike is one of the recognized rights of the workmen and to compel them to give fourteen days' notice of the intended strike would amount to negotiating that right. The cement industry is not a public utility service. According to the certifying officer, making any such provision in the standing order would mean overriding the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. The relevant clause of the Code of Discipline agreed to between the parties was brought to the notice of the certifying officer but he held that in case of breach of the said code the management would proceed against the delinquents. While reversing the above order and reinstating the abovesaid impugned clauses in the standing orders as finally certified by the appellate authority the following reasons were given by the industrial tribunal for adopting that course:

(i) In the Code of Discipline evolved at the fifteenth session of the Indian Labour Conference it was provided that there should be no strike or lockout without notice.

(ii) That a similar provision in respect of strike by workers after notice to the management is contained in the standing orders of almost all other concerns owned by the Associated Cement Companies, Ltd.

(iii) That in view of the special features of the industry it is but essential that the management should get sufficient prior notice of any intended strike by the workers so as to enable the management to make alternative arrangements or to consider seriously the demands made by the workers.