Certified Standing Order - raised non-conformance "Management interferes with union activities"

Please clarify the points mentioned in the certified Standing order by JCL.

"Canvasing of Union membership or collection of union subscription within the premises of the establishment or canvassing for any union activities within the premises of the factory without the permission of the Management."

The above point is not accepted by 3rd party compliance auditor. He raised non-conformance and stated "Management interferes with union activities" So no freedom of association.

Instead of following clause
"Canvasing of Union membership or collection of union subscription within the premises of the establishment or canvasing for any union activities within the premises of the factory without the permission of the Management.",

please insert

Canvasing of Union membership or collection of union subscription within the premises of the establishment or canvasing for any union activities within the premises of the factory shall be strictly discouraged by Management"

and get it approved by the Certifying Officer.

This is my suggestion. Our learned senior member, Umakanthan sir, can throw more light on this and clear your doubts.

The comment that the proposed clause amounts to management interference in union activities is clearly not acceptable. What is being prohibited is such activities at the work premises, that too without the permission of management, so the freedom of speech and association guaranteed by the constitution is not whittled down at all. There is an arguable case that even Constitution does not specify the right to form an association or freedom of speech as absolute rights but has put reasonable restrictions on enjoying these rights. Probably you can refer to the judgment of the higher Courts that salary is paid for work and not for union activity.

Thanks for your valuable comments

The replay given to 3rd party compliance auditor as bellow. But no response

“To avoid the situation where employees may be Canvassed for unethical activities by one of them, such practice may affect company and other employees even the brands with which the company is working (Like H&M, Disney etc.,). Nowadays lot of sch unethical activities happening around via social media and many other means which the establishment may not be aware of. This is the reason why "informing & getting permisssion" is necessary and the standing order has been approved by the respective government authority has approved the same. For your kind information in our factory no action has been taken on the above grounds which also clearly mentioned by the auditor in the report.

As per our policy of Freedom of association, Since no trade union exists, the management has procedures for facilitating to conduct election for worker representative (WR), they allow workers to freely elect their own representative as per the Local Rule.

Management will not influence or interface the worker Representative Election. Management will recognize and respect the Trade Union/all committees.”

Please share your views.

The basic purpose of the organization is to run the activities on day to day basis hassles free. The organization is liberal about conducting election for the selection of WR. There will be no Management interference at the same time management is thinking informing and getting permission. Informing is ok but getting permission is interference for control. One thing may be added that all activities should be done after the completion of working hours not during working hours which is common practice in most of the Indian organization.

S K Bandyopadhyay ( WB, Howrah)
CEO-USD HR Solutions
+91 98310 81531
[Login to view]
USD HR Solutions – To Strive towards excellence with effort and integrity

Hi
Thanks for valuable commends.