House clears Bill for faster disposal of labour disputes
Bill will help implement the settlement or award without delay following imposition of penalty for breach of settlement or award.
Kolkata: The Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which was returned by President Pranab Mukherjee, was Tuesday passed in the state Assembly to expedite disposal of pending cases in labour courts or industrial tribunal, with the government accepting the President’s suggestions.
Besides, this Bill will help implement the settlement or award without delay following imposition of penalty for breach of settlement or award.
State labour minister Moloy Ghatak said that with this Bill, most appropriate and experienced judges would be appointed in labour courts or industrial tribunals.
Simultaneously, any person who commits a breach of any term of any settlement or award, which is binding on him under this Act shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine of Rs 10,000 or with both, the minister said.
If a breach continues, an additional fine of Rs 2,000 per day during the period would be clamped, he added.
The Bill earlier had a provision which allowed an advocate practising in labour laws over 15 years to become the judge at the district labour court or tribunal. It also did not have the mention of state public service commission. These were objected by the President who returned the Bill to the Mamata Banerjee government through the Governor.
The Bill was tabled on Tuesday in the House with a subject: ‘Reconsideration of the Industrial Disputes (West Bengal) Amendment) Bill, 2015 returned by the Governor’ for a discussion by the MLAs after the recess.
Mr Ghatak told the House that the state government accepted the President’s suggestions with which the Bill was passed once again.
Later, he, however, said, “The President actually did not object to the provision of appointing an advocate as a judge. He rather suggested that it would not be appropriate to allow a practising advocate to chair the post. The absence of reference of state public service commission in the Bill was also pointed out. We accepted the President’s suggestions.”