Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XVIII. - Industrial disputes

Collection:: Economics Books

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES. 339 We discuss this case and its settlement in the chapter dealing with Burma. So far as We are aware, no prosecutions have been instituted under those provisions of the Trade Disputes Act which relate to public utility services or to general strikes. Congiliation and Arbitration. Although the experience of statutory courts is necessaril y meagre, there were many occasions before the passing of the Trade Disputes Act on which conciliation or arbitration was undertaken by individuals or by specially appointed committees or courts. Individuals (usually officials) have intervened in a number of strikes as conciliators or, by request, as arbitrators and seldom without success. The first attempts to settle disputes by the appointment, of more or less formal bodies were made in Madras in 1919 and 1920, when on four separate occasions courts of enquiry were appointed consisting of an official chairman and one member chosen by each party. The courts seem to have had a fair measure of success, but no such court was appointed in Madras after 1920. Courts or committees of a similar character were instrumental in terminating two strikes in Burma and two in Bengal in 1920 and 1921. In 1924 and again n 1928, committees of enquiry, consisting in each case of two independ- ent persons with a High Court Judge as chairman, were appointed in Bombay to report on questions arising out of the general strikes in Bom- bay cotton mills. The report of the 1924 committee had an important influence in bringing the strike to a conclusion. The 1928 strike wag brought to an end with the appointment of the committee (known as the Fawcett Committee) “ for the permanent settlement of the dispute ”. Unfortunately this wider end was not achieved. The committee, on its part, furnished a comprehensive review of working conditions in the Bom- bay mills and made a number of valuable proposals for their future regu- lation. These, however, were not carried out owing to a breakdown of negotiations between the parties. The subsequent arrest of leaders of the Girni Kamgar Union deprived the workers of these representatives, and the leaders of the older unions were unable to regain the confidence of the men. So that, although the millowners’ association have instructed their members to adopt the recommendations relating to standard rules, the more interesting suggestions relating to standardisation and the promo- tion of constant contact between the representatives of capital and labour have not materialised. Gulf Between Employers and Emploved. , In the remaining part of the chapter we set down the conclusions to which we have been led by our review of past experience and our examination of the present position. It is a platitude that the prevention of industrial disputes is better than their cure, but there has been a sendency to overlook some of jts implications. Public opinion naturally “oncentrates on the later stages of a dispute and especially on that final stage, the strike or lock-out. The prevalence of strikes affords an indication of the extent of unrest, but strikes are merely the symptom most evident to the public of underlying discontent. The attempt to leal with unrest must begin rather with the creation of an atmosphere 9

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