Can a Small Department Form a Trade Union to Challenge Company Policies?

Trade Union Registration and Recognition

Kindly advise whether one department of an organization can be registered as a trade union. If yes, is it mandatory for a company to recognize such a union, especially if the union is being formed to threaten the organization against taking any disciplinary action against the employees, even when they are wrong or not working in accordance with the company policy?

Kindly advise on how to deal with such employees or the union. They are not even 1/10 of the company's manpower strength; the rest of the employees do not support them.

Thanks & Regards,
C.M. Mohla

Kindly elaborate on what data I should provide to the Labour Commissioner's officer. We, as an employer, never cut the privileges of any worker. Actually, these employees are miscreants, and they are brainwashing other employees as well. They don't work properly, and if we exert some pressure, they go on long ESI leaves. Now, when we are talking to ESI officials about this, they are planning to form a union and unnecessarily pollute the environment of our organization and exert pressure on us so that no disciplinary action should be taken against them. What are the other steps we can take if they succeed in forming a union?

Kindly advise.

Thanks & Regards,
C.M. Mohla

According to the Indian Trade Union Act, to register or establish a union in an organization, people willing to join the union must be 10% of the total workforce (labor) if only 100 workers are employed. Otherwise, a minimum of 100 workers' strength is needed if the company population is more than 100. Similarly, an organization can have any number of registered trade unions if the above conditions are met.

Important Point for Running a Trade Union

A registered trade union of workmen shall at all times continue to have not less than 10% or 100 of the workmen, whichever is less, subject to a minimum of 7 persons engaged or employed in the establishment or industry with which it is connected, as its members.

Above is the law. Usually, workers threaten employers only if they are not satisfied or mistrust the employer. My organization is 30 years old but still a small-scale industry. This is partially because of union problems. Try avoiding them joining the union by forming an employer welfare team and attending to their needs immediately. This will work. For the past seven years, we have avoided strikes or union trouble by doing it. All the best.

I have only 8 months of experience in the HR field, but I have developed a good relationship with all types of workers only by attending to their real needs. Hope this finds you useful.

Members, please correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you.

Nature of Work and Union Formation

Please provide the nature of work performed by those workers. Forming a union is an employee's right, and employers cannot neglect it. Once a union is established in an organization, nothing can be done about it as it is often influenced by political and union leaders. To avoid a union, employers must act accordingly.

Options to Address Unionization

Option 1: Attend to their needs, solve the problem, and reduce the tension.

Option 2: If you are fortunate enough to avoid a union in your organization and still feel your employees might join a union in the future, then I advise you to bring all your workers under contract labor.

Understanding the Complexity of Trade Unions and Employment

The questioner has not come forward so far to frankly present the actual reasons for the present development, as well as additional important details such as the age of the industrial establishment, the nature of its manufactory, total strength of permanent workmen and their average age, the number of contract labor and casuals engaged, and the nature of activities of such indirect engagement. Furthermore, the existence of any union in the establishment is crucial. In the absence of any trade union, the practice of determining monetary benefits such as wages, bonuses, and the periodicity of their revision followed all along, the welfare amenities provided to the workmen, the system of grievance redressal put in place, the system of disciplinary control in vogue, and its impact on work culture and bilateral relations are all significant factors. Without knowing all these things, the advice tendered by the learned members—some of whom do seem to have bitter past experience in this regard and some others have an artificial sense of gratification by applying the principles of situational management dictated by sheer common sense—looks like directing the sailor to steer fast across the tip of an iceberg.

Employment as a Means of Livelihood

Employment, in its narrowest sense, is a means of livelihood. So, people who let themselves under the disposal of the employer come to earn their livelihood rather than to fight against him. Still, if a fight or conflict arises, it means that either of them or at times both may be greedy and inconsiderate. Therefore, it is imperative for the questioner's top management to make some dispassionate introspection into the entire goings-on and find out whether the agitative mindset is confined to a particular section because of any specific adversity pertaining only to it or to the entire workforce and take remedial measures to set things right.

The Role of Trade Unions

Trade Unions are everywhere. Can anyone cite any country or economy sans Trade Union? Of course, its effective role-play is getting gradually diluted in the era of Globalization and Privatization. But, it does not mean that the Trade Union is an obstacle to progress if the progress is not lopsided. When the employer has the magnanimity to accept his labor as one of the stakeholders of his industry and the honesty to address their concern transparently, he will recognize the Trade Union as a parallel institution for conflict resolution. So, the management should not be unnecessarily scared of the Union Leaders, whether external or otherwise, for they are not from an alien planet and they are aware of the limits of elasticity of concessions that can be granted by the management.

Challenges with Trade Unions

If experience with any Trade Union is bitter in the matter of conflict resolution, the pointers will certainly lead to extraneous reasons like politics, intellectual arrogance, personal hidden agenda, etc. One friend pointed out that our Labor Laws are obstacles to progress. I am not able to understand how he has come to such a drastic conclusion. If the provisions of some of the Laws are highly regulatory and prohibitive, it is only because of the circumstances prevailing then. Can anyone say such circumstances of exploitation in the forms of indirect employment for years together as trainees or off-roll employees or fixed-term appointments, closing the places of employment in a particular location suddenly with a simple notice of "suspension of operations" and starting a fresh one elsewhere with residential apprentices and residual casual labor on pittance wages, outsourcing the major chunk of the workforce under the guise of contract labor whose specialty is that the labor will be the same but the contractors would change in rotation, framing wage structures in such a way that the liability of the employer would be minimal in terms of terminal benefits of the employees and so on and so forth.

In such a sordid state of affairs involving questions of law, economics, and ethics, I don't understand how one can decry the representation of outsiders in Trade Union. If the employer's attitude and response are the sum product of probity, fairness, and concern for the employees' welfare in tandem with the industry's future backed by his business acumen, no union would dare to betray him. Mr. Mohli, don't try to indirectly float a rival union in support of the management, for class consciousness cannot be so easily eliminated. It would be similar to that of a young bachelor being scared of the torments of family life becoming a sanyasin and then running an ashram and orphanage.

Regards

Any 7 workers can form a union as per the Trade Union Act. Management has to agree upon the registered union. Please follow the Trade Union Act. Unions are not always anti-management, but you have to control the indiscipline and work on building a culture.

Steps to Follow:

1. First, check with which external union they want to get registered.
2. Determine whether the external union is from the ruling party of the state/locality.
3. If it is a ruling party, then discuss or try to convince them and ask them not to provide support.
4. Discuss with your local labor department; show them if you have issued any charge sheets. You can also show cause them if they are against the policy. Follow the Model Standing Orders if you don't have certified standing orders.
5. Try to gather the majority of other workers' views in writing regarding forming a union and submit to the DLC and external union if desired.

Keep your management informed.

Regards,
PS