Reacting to the draft rules of the Industrial Relations Code, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions said membership verification of trade unions must be held only through secret ballot. This must be ensured in the main body of the Act and not relegated to the Rules.

CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said in the response that draft Rule-five, empowers the employer as the sole authority for recognition of trade union without attaching any penalty or punishment for non-compliance. He said such a provision must be done away with. “The authority for carrying out the recognition process should be vested with a government official like Registrar of Trade Unions. If it is so accepted, the entire Rule 5(1)-(a), (b), (c)- appointing verification officer etc., would become infructuous,” he said in the note.

Declaring results

The CITU also demanded that the percentage of support of the unions should be calculated on the basis of votes polled and not on the basis of master roll. To get the representation in the negotiating council, the requisite support of 10 per cent of the total workers one representative for each 10 per cent is to be ensured and not 20 per cent as set out in the Code, Sen said in the note to the Ministry.

The CITU note said election results should be declared immediately after vote count and winning unions recognised. This provision is missing in the draft rules sections 7 and 8.

Recognising CTUs

Sen said there should be clear-cut criteria to recognise a central trade union. “This shall be based on the minimum membership of a central trade union, jointly decided on the basis of consensus from time to time by the joint meeting between the CTUs and the Ministry Of Labour and Employment as per existing prevalent practice. The membership of the claimant CTU shall be spread over minimum four States,” he said.

BMS, HMS and AITUC had also voiced their opposition to the draft rules. Ten CTUs may soon meet to submit a joint representation on the issue to the Ministry.

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