The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946

Object of the ActTo require employers to define the conditions of work

To bring about uniformity in terms and conditions of employment

To minimize industrial conflicts

To foster harmonious relations between employers and employees.

Object of the ActTo provide statutory purity and importance to standing orders

To maintain proper discipline, harmonious working conditions and achieve higher productivity by providing satisfactory employment and working conditions.

To specify the duties and responsibilities of both the employers and the employees.

Scope and ApplicationExtends to the whole of India

To every establishment wherein 100 or more workmen are employed on any day preceding twelve months

Once applicable to the establishment then it continuous if the no. of workmen employed gets reduced to less than 100

Continuous..It applies to Railways, Factories, Mines, Quarries, Oil-fields, Tramways, Motor Services, Docks, Plantations, Workshops, Civil Construction and Maintenance works.

The Act has 15 sections and a schedule.

It applies to all the skilled or unskilled, manual, supervisory, technical, clerical work.

Continuous..The apprentices are also included.

The persons employed mainly in a managerial / administrative / supervisory capacity drawing wages exceeding Rs.1600 are not covered.

Important DefinitionsAppropriate Government: State Government, Central Government.Certifying Officer: means Labour Commissioner/ Regional Labour Commissioner and includes any other officer appointed by the appropriate Government, by notification in the Official Gazette to perform such duties.Employer: owner of the establishment

Industrial EstablishmentA factory defined in Section-2 (m) of the Factories Act, 1948A railway defined in Railways Act, 1939Establishment defined in the Payment of Wages Act, 1936

Standing OrdersThe term Standing Orders means rules relating to matters set out in the Schedule of the Act.

ScheduleMatters to be provided in the Standing Orders (U/s.2(g) and 3(2)

Classification of the workmen : permanent, temporary, casual, apprentices, probationers or badlis

Manner of intimating to workmen, periods and hours of work, holidays, pay days and wage rates.

Shift working, Attendance and late coming

Schedule

Matters to be contained in the Standing Orders

Conditions of, procedure in applying for, and the authority which may grant leave and holidays

Requirements to enter premises by certain gates and liability to search

Closing and reopening of sections of the industrial establishments, temporary stoppages of work and the rights and liabilities of the employer and workmen arising therefrom

Schedule

Matters to be contained in the Standing Orders

Termination of employment, and the notice to be given by employer and workmen.

Suspension or dismissal for misconduct, and acts or omission which constitute misconduct.

Means of redress for workmen against unfair treatment or wrongful exactions by the employer or his agents or servants.

Submission of Draft Standing Orders (Section 3)

Obligatory on the part of an employer or a group of employers to furnish 5 copies of the draft standing orders

Within 6 months of the application of the Act the employer shall submit the draft standing orders to the certifying officer

Submission of Draft Standing OrdersDraft has to enclose the prescribed particulars of the workmen

The status and name of the trade unions to be given.

It has to take all matters set out in the Schedule.

Procedure for Certification of Standing Orders (Section 5)

Copy of draft standing orders to be sent to trade union/workmen

On receipt of the draft, the Certifying Officer shall forward a copy to the Trade Union, if any, of the workmen or where there is no such Trade Union, to the Workmen, 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.

Procedure for Certification of Standing Orders

After giving the employer and the trade union or representatives of the workmen, an opportunity of being heard, the Certifying Officer shall decide whether or not any modification or addition to the draft submitted by the employer is necessary to render the draft standing order certifiable under this Act, and shall make an order in writing accordingly.

Procedure for Certification of Standing Orders

The Certifying Officer shall thereupon certify the draft standing orders, after making any modifications and within 7 days, send the copies of the certified standing orders to the employer and to the trade union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen.

Conditions for certification of Standing OrdersAppeal

Any employer, workman, trade union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen aggrieved by the order of the certifying officer may, within 30 days from the date on which copies of the certified standing orders sent to them, an appeal to the appellate authority and the appellate authority whose decision shall be final, shall by order in writing confirm the standing orders by making such modifications or additions as it thinks necessary to render the standing orders certifiable under this Act.

Conditions for certification of Standing Orders

Date of Operation of the Act

On the expiry of 30 days of the certification given by certifying officer

Or

After the expiry of 7 days of the decision given by appellate authority.

Register of Standing Orders (Section-8)

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, and

The Certifying Officer shall furnish a copy to any person on payment of the prescribed fee.

Posting of Standing Orders (Section 9)

The text of the certified standing orders shall be prominently posted by the employer in English and in the language understood by the majority of his workmen on special Boards maintained for the purpose at or near the entrance through which the majority of the workmen enter the industrial establishment and in all departments where the workmen are employed

Duration and Modification of Standing Orders

A certified standing orders shall not, except on agreement between the employer and the workmen or a trade union or other representatives 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 into operation.

Duration and Modification of Standing Orders (Section 10)

An employer or workman or a trade union or other representative body of the workmen may apply to the Certifying Officer for the modification and such application shall be accompanied by five copies of the modifications proposed to be made,

And

Duration and Modification of Standing Orders

Where such modifications are proposed to be made by agreement between the employer and the workman or a trade union or other representative of the workmen, a certified copy of the agreement shall be filed along with the application

Payment of Subsistence allowance under section 10APayment of subsistence allowance by an employer to a workman who has been suspended by the employer and his investigation is pending the allowance shall be at the rate of 50% of the wage for the first 90 days of suspensionThe allowance shall be 75% of the wage after 90 days if the investigation is delayed due to employer

Payment of Subsistence allowance under section 10AIf any dispute arises regarding the subsistence allowance payable to a workman under sub-section (1), the workman or the employer concerned may refer to the dispute to the Labour Court, constituted under the Industrial Dispute Act,1947, within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the industrial establishment wherein such workman is employed is situate and

Payment of Subsistence allowance under section 10A

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.

Certifying Officers and Appellate Authorities to have powers of Civil Court

Every Certifying Officer and Appellate Authority shall have all the powers of a Civil Court for the purpose 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 & 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973

Certifying Officers and Appellate Authorities to have powers of Civil Court

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, 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.

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 as finally certified under this Act shall be admitted in any Court.

Penalty (Section 13)Any employer fails to submit draft standing orders as required by Section 3 or modifies it, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs. 5000.

In case of continuance of the above offence with a further fine which may extend to Rs.200 for everyday after the first during which the offence continues.

PenaltyAn employer who does any act in contravention of the standing orders finally certified under the Act or his Industrial Establishment shall be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs.100/- and In case of a continuing offence with a further fine which may extend to Rs.25/- for everyday after the first during which the offence continues.