The purpose of introducing the Industrial Disputes Act was to preserve cooperation and harmony between largely two segments that keep industries running: Capital and Labour. The provision, as it aims to offer, has multiple varieties of machinery for fair investigation and settlement of conflicts and disputes. There are 4 types of machinery for this purpose: 

A. Conciliation B. Court of Inquiry C. Voluntary Arbitration D. Adjudication. 

These are just the four statutory types of machinery that are offered by the Act. There are non-statutory ways too, such as joint consultative machinery, joint management council and code of discipline. Below is a brief discussion on one of the functioning of one such institution i.e. a works committee. 

Section 3

Section of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 provides for the formation of ‘works committee’. This body as an institution was introduced in 1947 along with the Act. The works committee is formed to maintain a channel of friendly cooperation and conflict resolution between employers and workmen of a particular establishment. To avoid any unfairness and overwhelming dominance by the employers, it is compulsory to keep the number of workmen never below that of representatives of employers. The decision of choosing the representatives of the workmen is with the workmen themselves or any trade union if any trade union does exist. In addition to this, the trade union should be registered under the Indian Trade Unions Act, 1926. The procedure for selecting those representatives should be followed in the prescribed form.

In the case ‘Kemp and Co. Ltd Vs. Their workmen’ ( 1955) L.L.J. 48, it was elucidated as to what a works committee’s main objective should be:

“...to promote measures for securing and preserving amity and good relations between the employer and workmen and, to that end, to comment upon matters of their common interest or concern and endeavour to compose any material difference of opinion in respect of such matters.”

Section 39

Section 39 provides for the authority of any officer delegated with such power or the Central Government’s power to dissolve any works committee given certain conditions are fulfilled. A works committee can be dissolved only after proper enquiry, it has become clear to the authority that the committee hasn’t been formed in accordance to the rules as mentioned under Section 3 of the Act or that at least two-thirds of the representatives of the workmen have failed to attend three consecutive meetings without providing any reasonable justification. The authority can dissolve any works committee by written order for the above-mentioned reasons or any other reason which might defeat the very purpose for which such a works committee exists.