How Can Management Legally Address Union Demands for a Common Charter Across Subsidiaries?

Hello Learned Person,

Greetings of the day. My question to you all is: If there are two companies that are subsidiaries of a parent company, and there is a single union demanding a common charter of demands. However, the management is not willing to adopt a common charter because it is not feasible for them, and their financial capacities differ.

How can the management resolve this issue within the bounds of the law?

Are there any case laws or articles that could help the management justify their disapproval?

Thank you for your time.

If there is one common union for two organizations that have a unique identity of their own, then inform the union that there will be two Memorandums of Settlement (MOS) for the two different organizations as they are not financially equivalent.

Take the matter to the labor directorate and convince them about the situation to inform the union accordingly through the labor directorate.

Regards, S K Bandyopadhyay (WB, Howrah) CEO-USD HR Solutions [Phone Number Removed For Privacy-Reasons] [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Unified Charter of Demands for Multiple Units

There is nothing legally wrong in giving a unified charter of demands for two or more units. Indeed, certain wage negotiations take place for the industry as a whole. The Indian Bank Association (IBA) has just now concluded wage revision with the unions for a 17% increase across several government banks. Similar is the case for the cement industry, etc.

However, the union cannot force the employer of the sister undertakings to jointly negotiate. One very important factor in wage negotiation is the capacity to pay, and when it widely varies from one to another, it will adversely affect the negotiations. If the nature of operations in both units is not related, then that would be another strong factor for keeping them separate. Let the negotiating teams for both industries be kept separate, and they must refuse to discuss anything about the other unit.

The law on the point is that every company is a separate entity and is a legal person.

Legally, two separate companies or employers can have two separate Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or wage agreements, despite the fact that all these and more companies can be under a single parent or holding company.