Under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, if no single trade union in an establishment has membership of 51% or more of the workers, which of the following mechanisms is adopted for collective bargaining?

Solution

Explanation:  The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 introduces the concept of a Negotiating Union and a Negotiating Council under Section 14, replacing the ad-hoc recognition practices under the old Trade Unions Act, 1926. The mechanism works as follows:

• Step 1: If a single trade union has membership of 51% or more of the workers in an establishment it is recognised as the sole Negotiating Union
• Step 2: If no single union has 51% membership a Negotiating Council is constituted, comprising representatives of all trade unions that have at least 20% of the total workers as members
• Step 3: The Negotiating Council collectively represents the workers for the purpose of collective bargaining with the employer

This is a landmark reform introduced by the IR Code it moves away from the multiplicity-of-unions problem that plagued Indian industrial relations by creating a structured, threshold-based mechanism. Option (A) is incorrect as the employer has no such discretion. Option (B) is incorrect as no compulsory merger is envisaged. Option (D) is incorrect as Conciliation Officers deal with dispute resolution, not bargaining representation.