Mid Term

LAB
Submitted By:
Kuntal Bajpayee
80012100369
H079
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1.a )
The Industrial Dispute Act of 1947 has been described as the latest milestone in the industrial
development in India. The Act has seen new additions in the past few years.
The main purpose of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is to ensure fair terms between
employers and employees, workmen and workmen as well as workmen and employers. The
Act is a benign measure which seeks to pre-empt industrial tensions, provide the mechanics of
dispute resolutions and set up the necessary infrastructure so that the energies of partners in
production may not be dissipated in counter productive battles and assurance of industrial may
create a congenial climate.
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 makes provision for the investigation and settlement of
industrial disputes and for certain other purposes. It ensures progress of industry by bringing
about harmony and cordial relationship between the employers and employees.

However, the principal objectives of the Industrial Dispute Act of 1947 are:

Objectives of Indian Industrial Dispute Act:

•To encourage good relations between labour and industries, and provide a medium of settling
disputes through adjudicator authorities.
•To provide a committee for dispute settlement between industry and labour with the right of
representation by a registered trade union or by an association of employers.
•Prevent unauthorized strikes and lockouts.
•Reach out to labour that has been laid-off, unrightfully dismissed, etc.
•Provide labour the right to collective bargaining and promote conciliation
•Promotion of measures of securing and preserving amity and good relations between the
employer and workmen.
•Investigation and settlement of industrial disputes between employers and employers,
employers and workmen, or workmen and workmen with a right of representation by registered
trade union or federation of trade unions or an association of employers or a federation of
associations of employers.
•Prevention of illegal strikes and lock-outs.
•Relief to workmen in the matter of lay-off and retrenchment.
•Promotion of collective bargaining
Ans 1,b

• Collective bargaining is the process of negotiating the employment terms between an

employer and a group of workers.
• The process takes place between company management and a labor union.
• Concerns and issues that may come up during collective bargaining include working
conditions, salaries and compensation, working hours, and benefits.
• The goal of collective bargaining is to come up with a collective bargaining
agreement or contract.
• There are several types of collective bargaining, including composite concessionary,
distributive, integrative, and productivity bargaining.
Example : The United Steelworkers is the largest industrial union in North America,
representing 1.2 million workers in various industries like the paper sector.

The union successfully reached an agreement with International Paper (IP), which
manufactures paper and packaged products, in 2011. The new contract guaranteed job
security and increases in employee wages for every year of the agreement along with
improvements to retirement benefits and cost benefits for employee health insurance

1 .c)

STRIKE :In business terms, a strike can be understood as a curtailment of work,

due to the collective refusal of workers to work, which occurs as a response to
employee grievances. It involves, dropping out of work by any number of workers,
employed in a particular industry, with an aim of creating pressure on the
employers, to accept their demands relating to pay scale, working conditions, trade
practices and so forth.

A strike is a powerful tool that trade unions, other groups, or employees use to
communicate their demands or grievances to employers or industry management.
According to Section 2 (q) of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947, a strike is
defined as a collective action by a group of workers in any industry, or a concerted
refusal, or a refusal under a common understanding, by a group of workers in any
industry to continue working or accept employment.

The legality of strike is determined with reference to the legal provisions

enumerated in the Act and the purpose for which the strike was declared is
not relevant in directing the legality. Section 10(3), 10A(4A), 22 and 23 of the
Act deals with strike. Sections 22 and 23 impose restrictions on the
commencement of strike while Sections 10(3) and 10A(4A) prohibit its
continuance.

The justifiability of a strike has nothing to do with whether or not it is legal or

illegal. The justification of strike as held by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in
the case of Matchwell Electricals of India v. Chief Commissioner, (1962) 2 LLJ
289, is entirely unrelated to its legality or illegality. The justification of strikes has
to be viewed from the stand point of fairness and reasonableness of demands made
by workmen and not merely from stand point of their exhausting all other
legitimate means open to them for getting their demands fulfilled

Causes of Strike
• Dispute relating to minimum wages.
• Salary and incentive issues.
• Increment is not up to the performance.
• Dissatisfaction with the policies of the company.
• Hours of work and interval timings.
• Holidays and leaves with pay.
• Bonus, Provident Fund, and gratuity.

Types of Strike
1. Hunger Strike: Strike in which the employees go on fasting, near the
workplace or at the residence of the employer, to force him/her redress their
grievances is called hunger strike.
2. Economic Strike: Economic Strike is the cessation of work by the labors
with an aim of imposing their economic demands like wages and bonus.
In such strike, the workers raise their voices to increase their pay, improve
working conditions, facilitate them with allowances, perquisites, and add-on
benefits.

3. Stay-in Strike: A type of strike, in which the employees come to the office,
as usual, take their seats but do not work and also deny to leave the office
premises, when asked to do so.
When such an act is performed in combination, it amounts to stay-in strike.
Alternately called as sit-down, pen-down or tool-down strike.

4. Go-slow Strike: Otherwise called as a slow-down strike, is one in which the

workers do not stop working, but slow down the entire process by
deliberately delaying the production, which results in the reduction of
output.
 This amounts to a serious case of misconduct, whereby the workmen
pretend to be engaged in the work and entitled to full wages. It is more
harmful than the complete cessation of work by employees, as the resources
get wasted, due to delayed working of employees.

5. Sympathetic Strike: A type of strike in which the workers of one

department, unit, division, or industry, go on strike, in support of the
workers of another department, unit, division, or industry, who are already
on strike.
This may be an unjustified seizure of rights of the employer, who is not even
involved in the conflict.

Strike is one of the powerful tool of collective bargaining, used by trade unions
and labor associations to compel the employer to grant several concessions. It can
also be used to protest certain terms of former or proposed agreement amidst the
labor and management.

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2.A) Sexual harassment can be said as any act amounting to unwelcome conduct of
a sexual nature making it offensive, humiliating and intimidating for a person
resulting into sexually permeated/hostile working environment.

All employers or persons in charge of work place whether in public or

privatesector should take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment.
Withoutprejudice to the generality of this obligation they should take the
followingsteps:

A. Express prohibition of sexual harassment as defined above atthe work place

should be notified, published and circulatedin appropriate ways.

B. The Rules/Regulations of Government and Public Sectors bodies relating to

conduct and discipline should include rules/regulations prohibiting sexual
harassment and provide for appropriate penalties in such rules against the offender.

C. As regards private employers, steps should be taken toinclude the aforesaid

prohibitions in the standing ordersunder the Industrial Employment (Standing
Orders) Act,1946.

D. Appropriate work conditions should be provided in respectof work, leisure,

health and hygiene to further ensure thatthere is no hostile environment towards
women at workplaces and no employee woman should have reasonable grounds to
believe that she is disadvantaged in connectionwith her employment.
Reema may File complaint under IPC. Sexual harassment under IPC is an offence
of cognizable nature, making the police in authority to arrest a person without
warrant and even start an investigation on their own. As per the procedural laws in
India, any person (including victim, her relatives, stranger) who has knowledge of
the act or offence committed can report about its commission. This can be done
either by providing the information to police in form of FIR with further
investigation and trial thereof or may proceed with complaint before the
jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate involving prosecution by private persons.

Complain Under Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act

Reema may also make in writing a complaint of sexual harassment atworkplace to

the Internal committee/ Local Committee within 3 months from the date of
incident or the date of the last incident in case of a series of incidents. In case the
women cannot write, the Presiding officer/ any member of Internal Committee/
Chairperson/ any member of Local Committee shall render all reasonable
assistance. (Section 9(1) of the Act)As the rules of POSH are for remedies, the IPC
penalises the same offence. So undoubtedly, Reema can file the complaint under
both POSH and IPC for better or subjective reliefs as per their need

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2.B) VOIDABLE contract

A voidable contract provides the option to rescind by either party. At the creation
of the contract, it is valid, but it could be voided in the future. Most sales contracts
are voidable contracts because they contain contingency clauses

For example, remember that blue house you wanted to buy? Well, you signed a
contract for a blue house, but now you show up and the house is green this is
voidable not void That is because the violation of the contract should not stop you
from being able to buy the house. You signed for a blue house, but what if you do
not mind the color green? That is why you have the option to continue with the
contract, making it VOIDABLE, not VOID.

A contingency is the dependence upon a stated event that must occur before a
contract is binding, such as providing a blue house when you sign for a blue house.
If a contingency provision cannot be met, the contract can be legally voided, such
as in the example given.
Contracts entered into under duress, misrepresentation, or fraud are voidable, not
void. For example, if a gun is put to your head with a person saying, "Sign the
contract or else I will shoot," that is being put under duress in its most intense
form. But even that does not make the contract void. What if you actually like the
property? Well, you can still buy it, even though you were put under duress, as the
contract is VOIDABLE, not VOID.

Void contract

A void contract has no legal force. It is missing an essential element, and thus it is
not a contract.

For example, a contract to kill would be void, because it has an illegal purpose.
You do not have the option to kill somebody! A more common example is if one
of the parties involved is legally deemed mentally incompetent. If that is true, the
contract is void as it violates one of the four essential elements of a valid contract:
mutual consent, lawful object, capable parties, and consideration.

Valid contract

A valid contract is one that meets the basic elements of contract law.

For example, you sign to buy a blue house, and the house is blue; thus the contract
is valid.

Illegal contract

Every transaction entered by the private parties or Government requires a legal

recognition, which is enforceable by the court of Law for claiming right. Thus, this
legal recognition which is enforceable in nature called “contracts”.

Example

To understand the concept of “legal” and “illegal” contracts let us take a view of
few examples, A entered into a contract with B for the sale of a house of Rs
11,00,000 and both A and B have performed their obligations on their part. This is
a valid contract between A and B. Let us take another example, A and B entered
into the Contract for the sale of a house, but it is for the purpose of storing
weapons which are prohibited under the law. This is an illegal contract which is
not enforceable by the court of law.

So from the above examples, it is now clear that not every contract entered
between the parties is valid, there are some basic elements which makes the
contract illegal or unlawful.

Unilateral Contract
We observe many unilateral contracts take place in our everyday lives. One of the
most common examples is a reward contract. For instance, when someone posts a
reward for their lost pet, wallet, cellphone, etc. By offering the reward, the offeror
sets up a unilateral contract that stipulates that the reward will be issued once the
lost pet or item is found.

Insurance contracts are another example of unilateral contracts. In an insurance

contract, the insurance firm promises to indemnify or pay the insured individual a
specific amount of money if a certain event happens. Since it is a unilateral
contract, the insurer is not obligated to make a payment to the insured if the event
does not occur.

Bilateral Contract Examples

Bilateral contracts are also very common. In fact, most business transactions that
occur in our day-to-day life are types of bilateral contracts. Whether it is going to
work and receiving compensation or going to a restaurant and paying for a meal,
you are taking part in a bilateral contract.

In the work scenario, there is a contract between the employee and the employer,
where the employee gets compensated for completing a set of tasks or achieving a
goal as stipulated in their work contract.

In the restaurant scenario, the customer is obliged to pay the restaurant for the meal
they ordered. The restaurant is obligated to feed the customer, who is promising to
pay.

An agreement is, therefore, a promise or set of promises forming

consideration for all the parties. [Section 2(e)]

Agreement = Promise or set of promises (offer + acceptance) + Consideration (for

all the parties)

A contract is a lawful agreement. In other words, an agreement enforceable by law

is a contract.

Contract = Agreement + Legal enforceability

Or

Contract = Legally enforceable Agreement

A type of agreement which is enforceable by law is a contract (Section 2(h) of the

ICA). Enforceable by law means that, if somebody is aggrieved then he may
approach the court for remedies. For example: In case of a Fire Insurance Contract
where Titu wants to insure his goods in the warehouse, he pays the insurance
premium and promises to avoid insurance fraud whereas the insurance company
agrees to compensate losses in case of a fire.

So Mathematically,

Agreement + Enforceable by Law = Contract

When an offer is made with the intention to create a legal obligation it becomes an
offer for entering into a contract. Thus an agreement becomes a contract when
there is free consent of the parties, capacity of the parties to contract, lawful
consideration and lawful object or subject matter (Section 10 of the ICA)