The roll-out of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 and the draft Industrial Relations (Central) Recognition of Negotiating Union or Negotiating Council and Adjudication of Disputes of Trade Unions Rules, 2021 as part of India’s labour reforms initiative, is in the offing.
The specific recognition of “negotiating unions” under this is significant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and fast-growing digitalisation, both of which have necessitated a rethink of the role of collective bargaining and trade unions.
Given recent regulatory developments on this topic in the United States and the United Kingdom, this development in India assumes importance.
The Code and negotiating unions
The erstwhile Trade Unions Act, 1926 (TU Act), by itself did not mandate trade union registration or recognition; it only provided a framework for registration and for registered trade unions to operate.
The lack of a recognition mandate in the TU Act culminated in the absence of a framework for recognising negotiating unions or councils under it. However, certain state laws (such as the Maharashtra Recognition of Trade Unions and Prevention of Unfair Labour Practices Act, 1971 and Kerala Recognition of Trade Unions Act, 2010) address this ‘recognition’ gap, albeit in an ad hoc manner.
The absence of a framework to statutorily recognise trade unions at the central level left a long-standing legal vacuum which has been filled by statutorily acknowledging “negotiating unions” and “negotiating councils”, under the Code and the Rules.
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