Industrial
Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946
Sections
Preamble
1. Short title, extent and application
2. Interpretation
3. Submission of draft standing orders
4. Conditions for certification of
standing orders
5. Certification of standing orders
6. Appeals
7. Date of operation of standing orders
8. Register of standing orders
9. Posting of standing orders
10. Duration and modification of standing
orders
10-A. Payment of subsistence allowance
11. Certifying Officers and appellate
authorities to have
power
of Civil Court
12. Oral evidence in contradiction of
standing orders not
admissible
12-A. Temporary application of model standing
orders
13. Penalties and procedure
13-A. Interpretation, etc., of standing orders
13-B. Act not to apply to certain industrial
establishments
14. Power to exempt
14-A. Delegation of powers
15. Power to make rules
The schedule
Industrial Employment (Standing Orders)
Act,
1946
[Act
No. 20 of 1946[1]As
Amended by Acts Nos. 3 of 1951, 36 of 1956,
[23rd April, 1946 ]
An Ac[4]t
require employers in industrial establishments formally to define
conditions
of employment under them
Whereas it is expedient to require
employers in industrial establishments to define with sufficient precision the
conditions of employment under them and to make the said conditions known to
workmen employed by them.
It is hereby enacted as follow :
1. Short
title, extent and application.- (1) This act may be called the Industrial Employment
(Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
[7][(3) It applies to every industrial
establishment wherein one hundred or more workmen are employed, or were
employed on any day of the preceding twelve months:
Provided
that the appropriate Government may, after giving not less than two months’ notice
of its intention so to do, by notification in the Official Gazette, apply the
provisions of this Act to any industrial establishment employing such number of number of persons less than one
hundred as may be specified in the notification :
[8][* *
* *]
[9][ (4) Nothing in this Act shall apply to-
(i) any industry to which the provisions of
Chapter VII of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946, apply; or
(ii) any industrial establishment to which the
provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act,
1961 apply :
Provided
that notwithstanding anything contained in the Madhya Pradesh Industrial
Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1961, the provisions of this Act shall apply
to all industrial establishments under the control of the Central Government .]
2. Interpretation.- In this Act, unless
there is anything repugnant in the subject or context
[10][(a) “appellate
authority” means an authority appointed by the appropriate Government by
notification in the Official Gazette to exercise in such area as may be
specified in the notification the functions of an appellate authority under
this Act :
Provided
that in relation to an appeal pending before an Industrial Court or other
authority immediately before the commencement of the Industrial Employment
(Standing Orders) Amendment Act, 1963, that Court or authority shall be deemed
to be the appellate authority:]
(b)
“appropriate
Government” means in respect of industrial establishments under the control of
the Central Government or a [11][Railway
administration] or in a major Port, mine or oil field, the Central Government,
and in all other in all other cases the State Government :
[12][Provided
that where question arises as to whether any industrial establishment is under
the control of the Central industrial establishment is under the control of the
Central Government that Government may, either on a reference made to it by the employer or the workman or a trade union or
other representative body of the workmen, or on its own motion and after giving
the parties an opportunity of being heard, decide the question and such decision
shall be final and binding on the parties :]
[13][ (c) “Certifying Officer” means a Labour
Commissioner or a Regional Labour Commissioner, and includes any other officer
appointed by the appropriate Government, by notification in the Official
Gazette, to perform all or any of the functions of a Certifying Officer under
this Act:]
(d) “employer”
means the owner of an industrial establishment to which this Act for the time
being applies, and includes-
(i) in
a factory, any person named under [14][clause (f)
of sub-section (1) of Section 7 of the Factories Act,1948], as manager of the
factory;
(ii) in
any industrial establishment under the control of any department of any
Government in India, the authority appointed by such Government in this behalf,
or where no authority is so appointed, the head of the department;
(iii) in any other industrial establishment, any person responsible to the
owner for the supervision and control of the industrial establishment;
(e) “industrial establishment” means
(i) an
industrial establishment as defined in clause (ii) of Section 2 of the Payment
of Wages Act, 1936, or
[15][(ii) a factory as defined in clause (m) of Section
2 of the Factories Act, 1948, or ]
(iii) a railway as defined in clause (4) of Section 2 of the Indian
Railway Act, 1890, or
(iv) the
establishment of a person who, for the purpose of fulfilling a contract with
the owner of any industrial establishment, employs workmen;
(f) “prescribed’
means prescribed by rules made by the appropriate Government under this Act ;
(g) “
standing orders” means rules relating to matters set out in the Schedule:
(h) “trade
union” means a trade union for the time being registered under the Indian Trade
Union Act, 1926;
[16][(i) “wages” and “workman” have the meanings
respectively assigned to them in clauses (rr) and (s) of Section 2 of the
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947).]
3. Submission of draft standing orders.--(1)
Within six months from the date on which this Act becomes applicable to an
industrial establishment, the employer shall submit to the Certifying Officer
five copies of the draft standing orders proposed by him for adoption in this
industrial establishment.
(2) Provision
shall be made in such draft for every matter set out in the Schedule which may
be applicable to the industrial establishment, and where Model standing orders
have been prescribed shall be, so far as is practicable, in conformity with
such model.
(3) The
draft standing orders submitting under this section shall be accompanied by a
statement giving prescribed particulars of the workmen employed in the
industrial establishment including the name of the trade union, if any, to
which they belong.
(4) Subject
to such conditions as may be prescribed, a group of employers in similar industrial
establishments may submit a joint draft of standing orders under this section.
4. Conditions for certification of standing
orders.--Standing orders shall be certifiable under this Act if--
(a) provision
is made therein for every matter set out in the Schedule which is applicable to
the industrial establishment, and
(b) the
standing orders are otherwise in conformity with the provisions of this Act ;
and it [17][shall
be the function] of the Certifying Officer or appellate authority to adjudicate
upon the fairness or reasonableness of the provisions of any standing orders.
5. Certification of standing orders.--(1) On
receipt of the draft under Section3, the Certifying Officer shall forward a
copy thereof to the trade union, if any, of the workmen, or where there is no
such trade union, if any, of the workmen
or where there is no trade union, to the workmen in such manner as may be prescribed, together with a
notice in the prescribed form requiring objections, if any, which the workmen
may desire to make to the draft standing orders to be submitted to him within
fifteen days from the receipt of the notice.
(2) After giving the employer and the trade union
or such other representatives of the workmen as may be prescribed an
opportunity of being heard, the Certifying Officer shall decide whether or not
any modification of or addition to the draft submitted by the employer is
necessary to render the draft standing orders certifiable under this Act, and
shall make an order in writing accordingly.
(3) The Certifying Officer shall thereupon certify
the draft standing orders, after making any modifications there in which his
order under sub-section (2) may require, and shall within seven days thereafter
send copies of the certified standing orders authenticated in the prescribed
manner and of his order under sub-section (2) to the employer and to the trade
union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen.
6. Appeals.--(1)
[18][Any employer, workmen, trade
union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen] aggrieved by the
order of the Certifying Officer under sub-section (2) of Section 5 may, within [19]
[thirty
days] from the date on which copies are sent under sub-section (3) of that
section, appeal to the appellate authority, and the appellate authority, whose
decision shall be final, shall by order
in writing confirm the standing orders either in the form certified by
the Certifying Officer or after amending the said standing orders by making such
modifications thereof or additions there
to as it thinks necessary to render the standing orders certifiable under this
Act.
(2) The
appellate authority shall, within seven days of its order under sub-section (1)
send copies thereof to the Certifying Officer, to the employer and to the trade
union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen, accompanied, unless
it has confirmed without amendment the standing orders as certified by the
Certifying Officer, by copies of the standing orders a certified by it and
authenticated in the prescribed manner.
7. Date of operation of standing orders.--Standing
orders shall, unless an appeal is preferred under Section 6, come into
operation on the expiry of thirty days from the date on which authenticated
copies thereof are sent under sub-section (3) of
Section 5, or where an appeal as aforesaid is preferred, on the expiry of seven
days from the date on which copies of the order of the appellate authority are
sent under sub-section (2) of Section 6.
8. Register of
standing orders. -- A copy of all standing orders as finally certified
under this Act shall be filed by the Certifying Officer in a register in the
prescribed form maintained for the purpose, and the Certifying Officer shall
furnish a copy there of to any person applying there for on payment of the
prescribed fee.
9. Posting of standing orders.--The text of
the standing orders as finally certified under this Act shall be prominently
posted by the employer in English and in the language understood by the majority
of his workmen on special boards to be maintained for the purpose at or near
the entrance through which the majority of the workmen enter the industrial
establishment and in all departments thereof where the workmen are employed.
10. Duration and modification of standing orders.--(1)
Standing orders finally certified under this Act shall not, except on agreement
between the employer and the workmen [20][or a trade
union or other representative body of the workmen] be liable to modification
until the expiry of six months from the date on which the standing orders or
the last modifications thereof came in to operation.
[21][(2)
Subject to the provisions of sub-section (1), an employer or workman [22][ or a trade union or other representative body
of the workmen] may apply to the Certifying Officer to have the standing orders
modified, and such application shall be accompanied by five copies of [23][***] the modifications
proposed to be made, and where such modifications are proposed to be made by
agreement between the employer and the workmen 19[or a trade union or other
representative body of the workmen], a
certified copy of that agreement shall be filed along with the application.]
(3) The foregoing
provisions of this Act shall apply in respect of an application under
sub-section (2) as they apply to the certification of the first standing
orders.
[24][(4)
Nothing contained in sub-section (2) shall apply to an industrial establishment
in respect of which the appropriate Government is the Government of the State
of Gujarat Maharashtra
[25][10-A. Payment of
subsistence allowance.--(1) Where any workman is suspended by the employer
pending investigation or inquiry into complaints or charges of misconduct
against him, the employer shall pay to such workman subsistence allowance-
(a) at the rate of fifty per cent of the wages
which workman was
entitled to immediately preceding the date of such suspension, for the first
ninety days of suspension; and
(b) at the rate of seventy-five per cent of such
wages for the remaining period of suspension if the delay in the
completion of disciplinary proceedings
against such workman is not directly attributable to the conduct of such
workman.
(2) If any dispute arises regarding the subsistence
allowance payable to a workman under sub-section (1), the workman or the
employer concerned may refer the dispute to the Labour Court, constituted under
the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), within the local limits of
whose jurisdiction the industrial establishment wherein such workman is
employed is situate and the Labour Court to which the dispute is so referred
shall, after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard, decide the
dispute and such decision shall be final and binding on the parties.
(3) Not with standing anything contained in the
foregoing provisions of this section, where provisions relating to payment of
subsistence allowance under any other law for the time being in force in any
State are more beneficial than the provisions of this section, the provisions
of such other law shall be applicable to
the payment of subsistence allowance in that State.]
11. Certifying Officers and appellate authorities
to have powers of Civil Court.-(1) Every Certifying Officer and appellate
authority shall have all the powers of a Civil Court for the purposes of
receiving evidence, administering oaths,, enforcing the attendance of witnesses,
and compelling the discovery and production of documents, and shall be deemed
to be a Civil Court within the meaning of [Sections 345 and 346 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974)][26]
[27][(2) Clerical or arithmetical
mistakes in any order passed by a Certifying officer or appellate authority, or
errors arising therein from any
accidental slip or omission may, at any time, be corrected by that Officer or
authority or the successor in office of such officer or authority, as the case
may be.]
12. Oral evidence in contradiction of standing
orders not admissible.--No oral evidence having the effect of adding to or
otherwise varying or contradicting standing orders finally certified under this
Act shall be admitted in any Court.
[28][12-A. Temporary application of model standing
orders.--(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Sections to12, for the period commencing on the date
on which this Act becomes applicable to an industrial establishment and ending
with the date on which the standing orders as finally certified under this Act
come into operation under Section 7 in that establishment, the prescribed model
standing orders shall be deemed to be adopted in that establishment, and the
provisions of Section 9, sub-section (2) of Section 13 and Section 13-A shall
apply to such model standing orders as they apply to the standing orders so
certified.
(2) Nothing
contained in sub-section (1) shall apply to an industrial establishment in
respect of which the appropriate Government is the Government of the State of Gujarat Maharashtra
Section 12-A.--Where there are two
categories of workmen, one in respect of the daily rated workmen and the other
in respect of the monthly rated workmen, if there are certified standing orders
in respect of the daily rated workers only, the prescribed model standing
orders should be deemed to have been adopted for those who are employed on the monthly
basis until such categories have their own certified standing orders,
13. Penalties
and procedure.--(1) An employer who fails to submit draft standing orders
as required by Section 3 or who modifies his standing orders otherwise than in
accordance with Section 10, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to
five thousand rupees, and in the case of a continuing offence with a further
fine which may extend to two hundred rupees for every day after the first during
which the offence continues.
(2) An
employer who does any act in contravention of the standing orders finally
certified under this Act for his industrial establishment shall be punishable
with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees, and in the case of a
continuing offence with a further fine which may extend to twenty-five rupees
for every day after the first during which the offence continues.
(3) No
prosecution for an offence punishable under this section shall be instituted
except with the previous sanction of the appropriate Government.
[30][13-A. Interpretation, etc., of standing orders.--If
any question arises as to the application or interpretation of a standing order
certified under this Act, any employer or workman [or a trade union or other
representative body of the workmen][31] may
refer the question to any one of the Labour Courts constituted under the Industrial
Disputes Act,. 1947, and specified for the disposal of such proceeding by the appropriate Government by notification in the
Official Gazette, and the Labour Court to which the question is so referred
shall, after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard, decide the question
and such decision shall be final and
binding on the parties.
13-B. Act not to apply to certain industrial
establishments.--Nothing in this Act shall apply to an industrial
establishment in so far as the workmen employed therein are persons to whom the
Fundamental and Supplementary Rules, Civil Services (Classification, Control
and Appeal)Rules, Civil Services (Temporary Service) Rules, Revised Leave
Rules, Civil Service Regulations, Civilians in Defense Service (Classification,
Control and Appeal) Rules or the Indian Railway Establishment Code or any other
rules or regulations than may be notified in this behalf by the appropriate Government
in the Official Gazette, apply.]
14. Power
of exempt.--The appropriate Government may by notification in the Official
Gazette exempt, conditionally or unconditionally any industrial establishment
or class of industrial establishments from all or any of the provisions of this
Act.
[32][14-A. Delegation of powers.--The appropriate
Government may by notification in the Official Gazette, direct that any power
exercisable by it under this Act or any rules made thereunder shall, in relation
to such matters and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be specified in the
direction, be exercisable also-
(a) Where
the appropriate Government is the Central Government, by such officer or
authority subordinate to the Central Government or by the State Government, or
by such officer or authority subordinate to the State Government, as may be
specified in the notification;
(b) where
the appropriate Government is a State Government, by such officer or authority subordinate to the State Government,
as may be specified in the notification.]
15. Power
to make rules.--(1) The appropriate Government may after previous
publication, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules to carry out
the purposes of this Act.
(2) In
particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such
rules may--
(a) prescribe additional matters to be included in
the Schedule, and the procedure to be followed in modifying standing orders
certified under this Act in accordance with any such addition;
(b) set
out model standing orders for the purposes of this Act;
(c) prescribe
the procedure of Certifying Officers and
appellate authorities;
(d) Prescribe the fee which may be charged
for copies of standing orders entered in the register of standing orders;
(e) provide
for any other matter which is to be or may be prescribed;
Provided that before any rules are made
under clause (a) representatives of both employers and workmen shall
be consulted by the appropriate Government.
[33][(3) Every rule made by the
Central Government under this section shall be laid as soon as may be after it
is made, before each House of Parliament while it is in session for a total
period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or [34] [in two or more successive sessions, and if,
before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the
successive sessions aforesaid] both Houses agree in making any modification in
the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall
thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the
case may be ; so however that any such modification or annulment shall be
without prejudice to the validity of any thing previously done under that
rule.]
THE
SCHEDULE
[See
Sections 2 (g) and 3(2)]
MATTERS
TO BE PROVIDED IN STANDING ORDERS UNDER
THIS
ACT
1. Classification
of workmen, e.g., whether permanent, temporary, apprentices,
probationers, or badlis.
2. Manner
of intimating to workmen periods and hours of work, holidays, pay-days and wage
rates.
3. Shift
working.
4. Attendance
and late coming.
5. Conditions
of, procedure in applying for, and the authority which may grant leave and holidays.
6. Requirement
to enter premises by certain gates, an liability to search.
7. Closing
and reporting of sections of the industrial establishment, temporary stoppages
of work and the rights and liabilities of he employer and workmen arising there
from.
8. Termination
of employment, and the notice thereof to be
given by employer and workmen.
9. Suspension
or dismissal for misconduct, and acts or omissions which constitute misconduct.
10. Means
of redress for workmen against unfair treatment or wrongful exactions by the
employer or his agents or servants.
11. Any
other matter which may be prescribed.
[1] For Statement of Objects and Reasons, see Gaz., of India
[2] Came into force w.e.f. 23-12-1963 , vide Noti. No. S.O., 3594 dt. 23-12-1963
[3] Came into force w.e.f. 17.5.1982 vide Noti. No. S.O. 326 (E) dated 17-5-1982 (1982 CCL-III-146)
[4] History of the Act.- The
Act has been amended by the Indian Independence (Adaptation of Central Acts and
Ordinances ) Order, 1943; The A.O. 1950; Act 3 of 1951; Act 36 of 1956; Act 16
of 1961; Act 39 of 1963; 51 of 1970 and 18 of 1982,
Object
of the Act.- That the
object of the Act is to have uniform Standing Orders providing for the matters
enumerated in the Schedule to the Act, that it was not intended that there
should be different conditions of
service for those who are employed before and those employed after the Standing
Orders came into force and finally, once the Standing Orders come into the
force, they bind all those presently in the employment of the concerned
establishment as well as those who are appointed thereafter. Agra Electric
Supply Co. Ltd. v. Aladdin, (1969) 2 SCC 598; U.P. Electric Supply Co. Ltd.
v. Their Workman, (1972) 2 SEC 54.
[5] Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for “all the
Provinces of India
[6] Omitted by Act No. 51 of 1970.
[7] Subs. by Act No. 16 of 1961, S. 2 for sub-section (3)
[8] The 2nd proviso to sub-section (3) omitted by Act No. 39 of 1963
[9] Added by ibid
[10] Subs. by Act No. 39 of 1963
[11] Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for “Federal railway”.
[12] Ins. by Act No. 18 of 1982
(w.e.f. 17-5-1982
[13] Subs. by Act No. 16 of 1961, S. 3, for cl.
(c).
[14] Subs. by S. 3, ibid, for “cl. (e) of sub- section (1) of S. 9, the
Factories Act, 1934”.
[15] Subs. by Act No. 16 of 1961, S. 3, for sub clause (ii)
[17] Subs, by Act No. 36 of 1956, S. 32, for ‘shall not be the function”. (w.e.f. 17-9-1956 ),
[18] Subs, by Act No. 18
of 1982 (w.e.f. 17-5-1982 ).
[19] Subs, by Act No. 1 of
1961, s. 4, for twenty-one days”.
[20] Ins. by Act No.18
of 1982 (w.e.f.17-5-1982).
[21] Subs, by Act No. 36 of 1956, S. 32, for the original
sub-section (w.e.f. 17-9-956).
[22] Ins.
by Act No.18 of 1982 (w.e.f.17-5-1982).
[23] Omitted by Act No.
39 of 963.
[24] Added by ibid.
[26] Added
by ibid.
[27] The original S. 11 renumbered as sub-section (1) and
sub-section (2) added by Act No. 39 of 1963
[28] Added by Act No. 39 of 1963.
[29] Sub., by Act no. 18 of 1982 (w.e.f. 17-5-1982 )
[30] Ins.
by Act No. 36 of 1956, S. 32 (w.e.f. 10.3.1957).
[31] Ins. by Act No.18 of 1982 (w.e.f. 17-5-1982 ).
[33] Ins.by S. 6 of Act No. 16 of 1961.
[34] Sub. By Act No. 18 of 1982 (w.e.f. 17-5-1982 ).
