Evolution of Labour Movement and

Trade Union Movement

 Stage of evolution
• Hunting stage
• Pastoral stage
• Agricultural stage
• Handicraft stage
• Domestic system of manufacture
• Workshop stage
 Evolution of Labour Laws
• Stages of Industrialisation
– Hunting Stage-Basic need of man were met by
nature.
– Pastoral Stage – Migratory nature of man
persisted. Domesticated animals.
– Agricultural Stage(First Stage of
Industrialisation)– Cultivation – people started to
work in the field – paid in kind – emergence of
small artisans and landed proprietors. The class
system began to develop.
 Contd…
• Handicraft Stage – ( Second stage of Inds)
– production of goods with the assistance of helpers
– Relationship of artisans and traders or merchants
– Exchange of commodities developed and commercial
centres started
– Merchants and guild system-control over the artisans
– Invention of machineries – large scale production
– Capital became an important factor
– Division – Capital & labour
 Contd…
• Domestic system of manufacture (Third Stage)
– Works in his own home
– With his own means
– But capital supplied by the merchant
• Workshop Stage (Fourth Stage)
– Large quantity of production with Standardised tools.
– The relations between the manufacturer and his
assistants were of a paternal nature – cordial,
sympathetic and personal.
– The employer-employee relationship gave rise to
elementary problems of modern labour.
 Contd…
• Factory system (Fifth Stage)
– Introduction of steam power – 1769
– Three new factories – textile, iron and coal
– Spread to other countries
– The human element in the productive process vanished.
– large scale production – making profits
– Creation of new class of industrial workers
– Accumulation of capital
– Division and specialization of labour
– Ownership of instruments of production in the hands of
merchants and manufacturers.
– Closed Economy to Mercantile economy
 Contd…
• Consequence of necessity to protect
themselves against rigours of employers.
• Modern TU-19th Century-England – Capitalism
• Created to protect employees in the wake of
industrial revolution
– Individualism
– Non state interference and laissez-faire policy
 UK
• Complete autonomy of employer permitted
under the common law.
• TU evolved as part of Industrial Revolution
(1760-1800)
• TU were considered as a threat to the
established social order
• The Combination Laws of 1799-1800
– Freedom of employees, wages, working
conditions
– Prosecution of workers who formed combinations
 Contd…

• God is our guide! from field, from wave,

From plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come, our country's rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction's doom:
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!
– George Loveless
 Contd…
• Govt repealed the Combination Laws, and TUs were given
legal recognition.
• In England till 1867 no. of legislations were passed.
• In 1867 Royal Commission on Trade Unions was
appointed-favoured TU
• On that basis-the TUs Act 1871 was enact
– Voluntary registration and legalized TU activities
• In 1868 Trade Union Congress was formed
• In 1874 two TU officials were elected to the Parliament.
• In 1893, the Independent Labour Party was formed
• In 1924, the party formed the First Labour Government.
 US
• 1792- First craft union was organised by
shoemakers in Philadelphia
• The yellow dog contract – agreement by
employee not to become or remain union
member
• The Clayton Act- TU activities prohibited
• 1935 – The National Labour Relations Act
established the national labour policy of
protecting the rights of workers to organise and to
elect their representatives for collective
bargaining.
 Contd…
• To meet these challenges several
management thinkers like Robert
Owen(owner of a Factory), Charles Babbage
and Daniel C. McCallum came forward.
• Robert Owen introduced many social reforms
and started co-operative movement from
1800 to 1828 in England .
 India-phase I (1850-1900)
• Factory system established during 19th century
by the establishment of
– First cotton Mill in Bombay 1851
– First Jute Mill in 1855 in Bengal
– Railway started operation in 1853 (Facilitated
transportation of labour and materials)
Resulted in long hours of work, employment of
women and children etc
 Contd…
• Enacted many legislations
– Merchant Shipping Act 1859
– Workmen’s Breach of Contracts Act 1859
– Employers’ and Workmen’s (Disputes) Act 1860
– These laws were in interest of employers.
 Contd…
1875-landmark in the History TU-workers
united for securing better conditions under
the leadership of religious leaders and
philanthropists.
Led to the appointment of First Factory
commission in Bombay in 1875 and the first
Factories Act was passed in 1881.
 Contd…
• First Factories Act, 1881
– Fixed the minimum and maximum ages of children
at 7 and 12 respectively.
– Hours of work to 9 per day
– No provision for regulating working hours of
female employees and inadequate provisions for
child labour.
– Demand for amendment
 Contd…
• Second Factory Commission
– Mr. Lokhandey organised a conference of workers in
Bombay and prepared a memorandum signed by
5,300 workers to be presented to the Factory
commission(appointed in 1884)-was the beginning of
the modern TU movement in India.
• All millhands – a day of rest every Saturday
• Half an hour recess at noon
• Hours of work from 6.30 am to 6p.m.
• Payment wage within 15th of month following
• Medical wages during the injury period
 T

• Lokanday organised public meetings of mill operatives

in Bombay
• He started the Bombay Mill hands Association-the
first TU in India.
• The Association took over the Dinabandhu, a social
reform journal, and converted it into the first labour
journal in India.
• The Indian Factories Act, 1891 was adopted
• 11 hours of work for female employees with 90
minutes break.
 Phase II (1900-1947)
• Large no. of labour orgnisations were started
• The Factories Act, 1911 reduced the working
hours of men and children.
• The declaration of war in 1914 led to the
growth of labour movement-economy
changed-increase in the prices of essential
commodities—cost of living increased-wages
lagged behind-affected the Trade union
movement.
 Contd..
• Factors led to the growth of TUs
– Russian Revolution 1917
– ILO 1919
– All Indian Trade Union Congress (AITUC) 1920
• There was no central TU-Govt nominated workers to
the ILO conference without consulting TU-Thus 64 TUs
having 1,40854 members formed central TU under the
chairmanship of Lala Lajpatrai.
– Swaraj movement
 Phase II
• B.P Wadia-working in Bukingham and
Carnatica Mills formed a TU-Madras Labour
Union. He and his 9 associated called for
strike-charge filed for criminal consipiracy-loss
of production-Court awarded Rs.
75000-Unable to pay-imprisonment-later co.
withdrawn the case on condition that he must
leave the city and should give up TU activities
 Phase II
• Demand for recognising and legalising TU.
• Government appointed Royal Commission on
Labour Reforms in 1928 with H.H. Whitely as
Chairman and N.M Joshi and Dewan Chaman Lal
as its members.
• Report came in 1931
• First the TU bill was moved by N.M Joshi-but
withdrawn the Bill-Govt moved Bill passed in
1926.
• Phase III (1947 Onwards)
 Industrial Revolution
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpW9Jc
WxKq0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9rZOa3
CUC8
 Trade Union Theories
• Moral Ethical Theories
– Christian Sociologist like Maurice and Kingsley –
brotherhood of man and mutual obligations
• Marxian Social Revolutionary Theory
– Idea of class struggle and viewed as revolutionary. It
has a social revolution goal of capturing the
government.
• Gandhian Theory
– admitted the existence of two classes-no need for
class struggle- TU used for reformation of workers as
good citizens and also for their defence against assault
from outside.