Indian Economy in Transition and Role of Industrial Disputes

It is well established that trade unions become an organization to safeguard the interests of the working class, and it also appears while strikes are the weapons in the hands of the working class, lockouts are that of the employers. Since the 1991 economic reforms, the status of labor and labor unions displayed a weakening trend in India. The objective of this paper was to find out the impact of industrial disputes in the manufacturing sector in India during the period from 1971-2011. The number of strikes by laborers started to diminish recently, but the number of lockouts has not decreased accordingly. Therefore, this study investigated whether the trade union movement in India is gradually becoming weaker with rising incidence of lockouts over strikes. It established the pre-dominance of lockouts as the major component affecting industrial relations. Although the number of workers involved in lockouts was relatively less than those involved in strikes, the duration of lockouts being much higher, the total number of mandays lost due to lockouts still continued to be much larger. This explains the higher social intensity of lockouts over strikes in the industrial sector in India. Hence, some steps need to be taken on an urgent basis for maintaining harmonious industrial relations in the manufacturing sector. A healthy labour policy need to take into account issues like skill development and other social measures to make them competitive in a healthy and workers' friendly environment.