Limitations of Trade Union Act 1926

[luttu]

What are the shortcomings of the Trade Union Act, 1926?

[nbm]

1. Under the Act the registration of trade union in not compulsory but is merely voluntary. The National Commission on Labour is of the view that the registration of trade unions should be made compulsory because this will ensure application of uniform standards of functioning and organisation to all, unions and will prevent fraud, embezzlement and deception practised by some of the unscrupulous office bearers of these unions.
2. At present, any seven persons can form a union and claim to represent the workers. This has resulted in a mushroom growth of unions in every orgainsation. For example, there are as many as 124 workers' unions in the Steel Authority of India Limited. 79 in Heavy Engineering Corporation and 48 in Damodar Valley Corporation. So many unions not only compete with each other for the same jurisdiction but also try to outside each other in militancy. One way is to raise the minimum requirement of 7 persons. NCL, for example, has suggested that this minimum should be raised to 10% of the regular employees of a plant or 10G whichever is lower subject to minimum of 7. Another way is to withhold certain roles, privileges and immunities under the Act from all those unions which have not been granted the bargaining status. They will thus be forced to think about consolidating their strength and ending their rivalries. It can be suggested that any union enjoying the support of less than 20% of the employees of a plant should be assigned only supportive roles, 
3. The Act does not prescribe any time-limit for the grant or refusal of registration by the registrar. It only imposes a statutory duty upon the Registrar to register a trade union if he is satisfied that the requirements of the statute have been complied with. NCL has suggested 30 days excluding the time which the union takes in answering queries from the registrar. This may, however, not achieve its desired objective if some Registrar makes various enquiries simply to gain time. It is therefore better if some specific time say for example, 60 days, is prescribed from-the date of the receipt of application for granting or refusing to grant registration of a trade union.
4. The Act does not empower the Registrar to refuse registration of trade union in cases where one or more unions are already in existence in the plant or industry. It is, therefore, suggested that in order to curb multiplicity of unions the Registrar of Trade Unions should be empowered lo refuse to register more than one union in one plant or industry. But this is not correct for two reasons: First, this may run contrary to Article 19 of the Constitution, and second, the problem of multiplicity of trade unions can be solved to a great extent by providing recognition to a representative union.
5. At present, 50% of the executives of a union can be outsiders. The role of outsiders, of late, has come under fire. It is said that these outsiders are generally professional agitators or ex-employees of the company whose services have been terminated for misconduct and whose job now is to fish in troubled waters. Their entry in the executives of trade unions should therefore be completely banned.