Labour Regulation in the Long Twentieth Century

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://dans.nls.ac.in/handle/123456789/2845

About

(copied over from original)

Labour Regulation in the Long Twentieth Century is conceived as a digital repository on labour regulations in India and one of the result of Thematic Module Labour as a Political Category under Merian-Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies: 'Metamorphoses of the Political (ICAS:MP), an interdisciplinary forum for intellectual exchange funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The repository is aslo an element of a larger project of multilateral cooperation that aims at creating "Extended Archives of Indian Labour".

In the period after the First World War, labour became a significant object of state regulation in India. This is not to say that there was no regulation in the period prior to this; but its character was markedly different. Regulations in the nineteenth century had a distinctly penal flavor. The Workmen's Breach of Contract Act of 1859 and a series of legislations directed towards indentured plantation labour in India and abroad were prominent examples of the penal character of labour regulations. Trade unions when they existed were subject to criminal trespass laws.

The rapid expansion of industries and industrial labour in the years leading up to and during the First World War, the upsurge in labour protests in India, the Russian Revolution, the establishment of the ILO and the formation of the first All India Trade Union Congress, provide the immediate context for the shift in colonial state policy. The emergence of labour as a political category was now recognized in the Government of India Act of 1919 when a special representation for labour through nomination was introduced. At the same time, the question of the social reproduction of labour became a matter of concern for colonial state policy. These shifts were reflected in the slew of labour legislation in the 1920s and 1930s, for example, the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1923, the ending of penal labour regimes in 1925, the Trade Union Act of 1926 and the Trade Disputes Act of 1929, as an immediate response to the general strikes of 1928 in Bombay. No doubt these welfare oriented legislations covered only a small segment of industrial workers, nevertheless they marked a trend which culminated in the setting up of a formal sector labour regime in post-independent India, with the promulgation of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947, the Factories Act of 1948, the Minimum Wages Act of 1948, the Employees State Insurance Act of 1948, the Plantation Labour Act of 1951 and the Provident Fund Act of 1952. The expansion of the Public Sector in the Nehruvian era accelerated the process of industrialization leading to an increase of the labour force in modern industries and establishments.

A labour regime based on extensive juridification of the employer-employee relations emerged within the frame of an interventionist state in post-independent India. There was a consequent expansion of labour related legal disputes, industrial tribunal awards on wages, bonus, dearness allowance, and welfare related compensations. Even as the bulk of labour including those in agriculture and urban informal sector were excluded from this labour regime, it still played a crucial role in shaping expectations and framing the vision of a modern industrial India. In the last decades of the twentieth and the early decades of the twenty first centuries, the regulatory modalities were substantially transformed under the twin pressure of an increasing neo-liberal turn in economic policy making and financial and trade globalisation.

The present repository of documents aims to track these changes over the long twentieth century. It presently comprises of the following five collections that together provide a valuable resource for mapping histories of labour.

  • The Labour Gazette brought out by the Bombay Labour Office from 1921 specialized in providing information on conditions of labour, industrial disputes and legislative changes in India and included international news about labour.
  • The Labour Law Journal (1949- 2005) containing major judicial and labour court judgments, orders and pronouncements on labour disputes.
  • ILO India, monthly reports, 1929-1970, a unique collection of reports sent out monthly from the ILO India Office tracking legislative and political changes in India.
  • The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Pamphlets Collection 1928-1990. This collection of printed pamphlets traces the origin and evolution of the organisation of the AITUC as the first All India Federation of Trade Unions. It also contains pamphlets containing the position of the AITUC on economic policy, major legislations concerned with labour and accounts of important events connected with the history of industrial relations in India.
  • Commissions of Labour 1931-2002. This collection contains the reports, evidence and memorandums submitted to various official commissions in pre and post-independence India to enquire into conditions of labour, beginning with the Royal Commission on Labour in India (1929-31) and includes reports of the National Commissions on Labour 1969, 1991 and 2002.


Credits

(copied over from original)

Labour Regulation in the Long Twentieth Century is conceived as a digital repository on labour regulations in India. This repository result of an ongoing activity of TM 2 Labour as a Political Category under Merian-Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies: 'Metamorphoses of the Political (ICAS:MP), an interdisciplinary forum for intellectual exchange funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Module Coordinator: Prof. Rana Behal (AILH/University of Delhi), Prof. Dr. Ravi Ahuja (CeMIS Gottingen), Dr. Aditya Sarkar (University of Warwick)
Project Coordinators: Dr. Anna Sailer, Dr.Naveen Chander
Senior Researcher: Dr.Naveen Chander
Repository Adviser: Prof. Chitra Joshi, Prof. Prabhu Mohapotra, Prof. Ravi Ahuja
Jr. Research Assistants: Harshita Sharma, Harsh Kapoor, Mohd. Mazhar, Matt
Infrastructure Support: Archives of Indian Labour, Association of Indian labour Historians (AILH), Center for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), Max Weber Stiftung (MWS)
Design and Customisation: Vijay Pratap Singh, Dr.Naveen Chander
Technical Assistants and Dspace installation: Utsav Rai, Deepak Chaudhary (Jivesna Tech )
Software Credits: This site is an Open-source web publishing archival platform for sharing digital collections, using Dublin Core Vocabulary

Terms of Usage

(copied over from original)

Labour Regulation in the Long Twentieth Century is an online research archive of primary and secondary materials related to labour regulation and working class history in India. These materials include, Trade Union Records, Government reports and periodicals, Labour Law Reports as well as newspaper reports, oral interviews, video documents etc. and are intended to facilitate research, criticism, educational use by researchers, scholars, students and other interested persons. The site aims to promote inter disciplinary scholarship and is intended to be used primarily for non commercial purposes. The site specifically adheres to exceptions and rights granted for libraries, archives and for purposes of research and educational use under Sec. 52 of the Copyright Act.

The website attempts to bring together in a consolidated manner all materials pertaining to regulation and labour history including but not limited to valuable archival materials available in the public domain. These materials will be available for all users. Some material will only be available to bona fide researchers and scholars who present their credentials to the administrators. This shall solely be at the discretion of the administrators



Contact

(copied over from original)

Anna Sailer
anna.sailer-1@sowi.uni-goettingen.de
Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS)
University of Gottingen

Naveen Chander
cu.naveen@gmail.com
Sr. Researcher, Labour Module
Merian-Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies: 'Metamorphoses of the Political (ICAS:MP)

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Author: search.filters.author.All-India Trade Union CongressEnd date: 1959

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 21
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    All-India Trade Union Congress: Report, Twentieth Session: Nagpur 1943
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1943) All-India Trade Union Congress
    Includes: the proceedings; REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY: AITUC strength; Detention of the president and members of the Working Committee and General Council; Observation of special days by AITUC; Organisational tours by AITUC office bearers; Provincial committee of the AITUC; Consultations by government; Tripartite labour conference; Representations to provincial governments; Attitude to war of AITUC; Workers and political situation; Important labour struggles; Working of war time ordinances; Problems of labour legislation. Statement of accounts. RESOLUTIONS: Greetings for May Day, to the Red Army, to the Chinese people; Indians in South Africa; Kayyur comrades; Repression; Defence of India Act; Dearness allowance; Rationing; Food crisis; Railway workers; Dismissals on railways for desertion; Textile worker demands; Seamen; Jute workers; Khewra salt miners; Tea plantation workers; Paper industry; Digboi petroleum workers; Bidi (beedi) workers; Primary school teachers; Baroda state trade union legislation; Repression in Cochi and Travancore; ARP measures in Bengal; Health insurance; Tripartite conference; Draft resolutions that were not passed. Amendments to the constitution. Resolutions passed at working committee meeting. Resolutions passed at general council meeting. Resolutions of new general council. Affiliated unions. Members of general council. List of attendees to 20th session. AITUC constitution.
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    All-India Trade Union Congress: Report Eighteenth Session, 1940
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1940) All-India Trade Union Congress
    Includes the report of the general secretary from April 1938 to September 1940: AITUC strength
  • Item
    All-India Trade Union Congress Report of the Eight Session 1927
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1927) All-India Trade Union Congress
    Includes: proceedings. Speeches by the AITUC president, and appendices relating to labour on the railway; Seamen; Coal; Infant mortality; Housing; Truck act; Prompt payment of wages; Indian labour abroad. GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT: AITUC strength; Provincial committees and provincial secretaries; Delhi session of congress; Executive council meetings; Election; Circulars; Affiliated unions; Strikes and lockouts; Petroleum workers strike; Textile workers strike at Coimbatore; Mill worker strikes; Labour legislation; Indian Mines Act; Government resolution on International Labour Conference; Indian Penal Code; All-India Trade Union Bulletin; Indian Labour Journals; May Day celebrations; International labour conference; Indian fraternal delegates; Delegations from abroad; T. Mardy Jones, MP, tour of India on labour conditions; General labour conditions in India; AITUC financial position; Money from USSR. Speeches by A. A. Parcell, MP; J. Hallsworth; T Mardy Jones, MP; British delegations speeches. RESOLUTIONS: Royal commission on reforms; Miss Mayo’s “Mother India”; Political prisoners; Passport to Messrs. Saklatwala, Thengdi and Ghate; Protest against imperialism; Soviet anniversary; China; Anglo-Russian unity; Prosecution of P. Spratt; General labour demands; Unemployment; Workmen’s Compensation Act; Policy of protection and workers’ interests; Industrial Housing conditions; Legislation against imposition of fines; Amendment of Indian Factories Act; Seamen’s grievances; Textile workers grievances; Railwaymen’s grievances; Press workers’ grievances; Miners’ grievances; Cordite factory workers; Telegragh peons; Government Employees’ Unions; Council of actions; Delegation to International Labour Conference. Statement showing the affiliation fees received and due from affiliated unions. Statement of accounts. List of affiliated unions with their addresses. Constitution of the AITUC.
  • Item
    Papers for the Working Committee Meeting Delhi: 8-9 August 1959
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1959) All-India Trade Union Congress
    Includes AITUC’s views on government’s memoranda on industrial relations
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    Report of The All-Hyderabad Trade Union Congress : Presented by Dr. Raj Bahudur Gour, M.P. to the Second Session of the AITUC (April 11-13, 1954.). Trade Union Publication Series No. 11
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1954) All-India Trade Union Congress
    The Hyderabad report to the Second Session of the AITUC in 1954 deals with the years 1951-54. The period has been one of deepening economic crisis and growing unemployment, signifying the failure of government policies. It contains the following sections: Growing unemployment; Industrial collapse; Rationalisation and workload; Absenteeism – Workers’ device to snatch some leisure; Corruption and waste; More accidents – Result of increased workload and corruption; Victimisation and attack on trade-union rights; Repression on the working class; Low wages and high costs of living; Fiasco of government policies; Struggles and achievements of the working class; Cement; Gold workers’ struggles; Coalminers’ struggles; Cotton textiles; Road transport; Municipalities; Cigarette workers’ achievements; Bidi workers’ struggles; Civil supplies employees; PWD employees; Chemical group; Shops and establishments; The labour department and its activities; General struggles and observance of days; Main problems facing the workers; Problems of social security; Provident fund; Deteriorating health; Housing; Fight for linguistic states; The fight for peace and against the American threat of enslavement; and Broad lessons for unity, organization and struggle.
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    24th Session of the All-India Trade Union Congress : Reports & resolutions. Calcutta, May 27-29, 1954
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1954) All-India Trade Union Congress
    See note on title. Includes: An appeal to all workers and trade unions for unity
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    Questions of wage policy & work
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1957) All-India Trade Union Congress
    The booklet sums up the main resolutions of the Tripartite Indian Labour Conference in Delhi held on 11 and 12 July 1957. At the conference, the government circulated four papers prepared by the Labour ministry and published here. It focuses especially on wages. It includes the following chapters: A forward by Dange, Shripad Amrit; Some general principles in the determination of industrial wages in India; Principles of wage fixation – A study of industrial awards; Determination of the minimum wage; Share of wages in factory output; Main conclusions and recommendations of the 15th Indian Labour Conference (Wage policy; Rationalisation; Housing; Discipline in industry; Workers’ participation in management; Workers’ education; Training within industry; General); A review of the Tripartite conference; Standing labour committee – Code for discipline in industry; Dissenting note by the AITUC; Productivity seminar and principles.
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    All-India Trade Union Congress: Report Fifteenth Session, 1935
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1935) All-India Trade Union Congress
    Includes: proceedings, with speeches by chairman of the reception committee S. H. Jhabvala; by AITUC president Maniben Kara; by Jawaharial Nehru. GENERAL SECRETARY KHED-GIKAR’S REPORT: United front; Calcutta session; Bombay Girni Kamgar Union election; Bombay Dock Workers’ union; Amalgamation of rival unions; Efforts for unity with NTUF; Affiliation of unions from the Red TUC; United front with the All India Congress Socialist Party; Relations with the Indian National Congress; Activities; Informal meetings; Observance of days; Labour week; Labour legislation; Strikes; Repression; Non-recognition of trade unions; Provincial committees; New unions; Affiliation of new unions; Funds. RESOLUTIONS: Trade union unity; repression; War; Greetings to Abysinnia; Relations with Indian National Congress; Collective representation; Scheme of representation—DCC executive, PCC and annual session, AICC, TU constituencies, method of election; Development of political consciousness; Labour constituencies; Payment of wage bills; Factories’ Act; Press workers; Jamshedpur Metal Workers’ union; Peasantry; Majoor Mahajan Ahmedabad; Railway retrenchment; Unemployment; Immediate tasks; New office bearers. List of affiliated unions for the year 1936-37; AITUC constitution.
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    Withdraw the Black Bills: Labour Relations Bill and Trade Union Bills analysed
    (All-India Trade Union Congress, 1950) All-India Trade Union Congress
    Pamphlet focuses on statements submitted by AITUC delegattion to the Triparties Labour Conference to discuss the Labour Relations Bill and Trade Unions Bill in a meeting on March 20 and 21 1950. The delegate considers these bills fascist measures.