I have great pleasure
in welcoming you to this tripartite Labour Conference. I can hardly
convey to you adequately the sense of gratitude which I and the Government
of India feel for the ready response which you have given to our
invitation and the trouble that you have taken to be present here this
morning. I hope and trust that this ready response on your part
will be followed by an equally willing cooperation in making this conference a
success and in carrying through its purposes to fruition. I do not wish
to detain you long; these are days of grave emergency and I realise that
everyone must return to his post as soon as he can. I will not,120
therefore, make any lengthy speech on this occasion but will contain
myself with touching upon a few points with a140 view to bringing home
to you the significance of the conference and to state its aims and objects. As
you know,
160 there have been so far three Labour Conferences held
in New Delhi under the auspices of the Labour Department of the
Government of India. The present conference is thus the fourth of this series.
You will realise the significance of this conference better if I tell
you in as few words as I can the special features which mark off
this Conference from the previous ones. In the first place, although the
previous conferences met regularly at certain fixed periods, 240
permanency was not a part of the plan of those conferences. There
could have been a break in their regularity and the idea could
have been abandoned without doing violence to any rule or convention or
understanding. 280 The present conference has permanency
as a part of its plan. The organisation that we want to set up
will have the permanency and regularity of a standing committee, ready
to function when called upon to do so. More important320 than this feature of
the conference is the second feature to which I want to draw your particular
attention. It relates to the composition of the conference. The previous
conferences were representative of Governments only. The representatives of the
Central Government, Provincial Governments360 and some of the Indian
States’ Governments formed the only constituents of the conference.
The most necessary and the most important elements, namely, the employers and
the employees, were not represented at these conferences. Care was no
doubt taken to establish contact and even to consult the organisations
representing the employers and the employees. For instance, my honourable
friend420
Shri Mudaliar, when he was the member in charge of Labour, did take
occasion to meet the representatives of Labour and of employers during
his visit to Calcutta. Similarly, my honourable friend Shri Firoz Khan,
to whom we owe the project of the present conference, did seek occasion to take
counsel with480 the organisations of employers and employees during
his tenure of office as Labour Member. It is for the first time,
however, in the history of these Labour conferences that the representatives of
the employers and the employees have been brought face to face within
the ambit of a joint conference. To my mind this is a feature of
the conference which should find a very ready welcome from all concerned and particularly
from the representatives of the employees. Ever since the Witley
Commission, in its Report on Labour560 in India, put forth
the proposal that there should be established in India as a permanent
body an Industrial Council, the representatives of Labour have agitated
for effect being given to that recommendation. For various reasons it
did not until now become600 possible to realise the ideal of
an Industrial Council. I do not claim that the proposal which this conference
is called upon to give effect to amounts to a complete realisation of that
cherished ideal. But there can be640 no doubt that this Conference
seeks to pave the way towards the realisation of that ideal, and I am sure
you will not deem it an exaggeration if I say that it marks a
long stride on the road which leads to that goal.
I will now say a word or two with
regard to the aims and objects700 of this Conference. Some of you who are
familiar with the proceedings of the previous conferences will know
that one of the720 primary objects which brought those
conferences into being was the great desire to avoid the danger arising out
of the diversity in Labour Legislation with which this country was threatened
as a consequence of Provincial independence in Labour legislation. So long
as the Government of India was a Unitary Government, uniformity
in Labour legislation was not difficult to obtain. But the federal constitution
created by the Government of India Act of 1935 by including Labour legislation
in the800
Concurrent Legislative List had created a very serious situation.
It was feared that if there was no central legislation each Province
might make a particular law especially suited to itself, but different from
that of its neighbour by allowing Provincial considerations to840
dominate over considerations of general and national importance. The
conferences were called to supply a most necessary corrective to this tendency
and to foster among Provincial Governments a regard for the wholesome principle
of uniformity in Labour legislation. In constituting this conference, I do not
propose to abandon this object of uniformity in Labour legislation with
which the three previous Conferences were mainly concerned. It will remain one
of the object which the Conference will pursue. But I would like to
add two other objects, namely, the laying down of a procedure for the
settlement of industrial disputes and the discussion of all matters of
all-India importance as between Labour and Capital. Our Conference will have,
therefore, three main aims960 and objects, namely, the promotion of
uniformity in Labour legislation, the laying down of a procedure for the
settlement of980 industrial disputes, and the discussion
of all matters of all-India importance as between employers and employees. In
regard to the first, it is unnecessary to say why we have
included it in our aims and objects. Uniformity in Labour legislation can never
cease to be a matter of importance to so large a country like India with
its many administrative and provincial jurisdictions. It must therefore,
continue to occupy our attention in the future as it has done in the
past.
As to the industrial disputes, both
Labour and Capital have, once in war, behaved with a sense of responsibility1080
and the number of strikes that have taken place has not been on a very
extensive or disturbing scale. There was some tendency at the
beginning of this year for an increase in industrial unrest, but the laying
down of1120
a procedure for adjudication of disputes under the Defence of India Rule 81-A
has resulted in some reduction in recent months. That procedure will
prove an efficient and a reliable machinery, but it is a procedure for the settlement
of industrial disputes as one of the aims and objects of the Conference
which we propose to set up. In designing the last item included in our aims and
objects we have deliberately used wide language so as not to exclude1200
from the deliberation of the Conference anything that is of importance to Labour
and Capital. But I like to tell you what we have in mind in employing the broad
expression “matters of all-India importance.” We want to include in it all
matters relating to Labour Welfare and the maintenance of Labour morale and I
think everyone understands that. 1260 I need to hardly say that although this
object is placed last, it may be regarded as the highest1280
in importance. We certainly regard it as most urgent.
The urgency is due to the necessities of the war. The present war is a
war of supplies and supplies depend upon peace in industry. How to secure peace
in industry is a pressing problem for us today. I may not be wrong if I
say that peace in industry depends upon two things. In the first place, it
depends upon the existence of the machinery ready at hand for the quick
settlement of industrial disputes. Secondly, it depends upon the prompt removal
of all such conditions in industry which may fray tempers and bring about a deterioration
in the morale of people engaged in it. But there remain a large number of1400
questions which are too small to lead to an industrial dispute, but which are
big enough to raise temper. Most of those matters which are liable to raise
tempers relate to what in ordinary parlance is designated as matters
affecting1440
social welfare. For dealing with such problems we have no machinery,
and it is mainly the necessity to provide immediately a machinery for
advising the Government as to how such matters should be peacefully
and satisfactorily dealt with, that has led the Government to
institute this Conference forthwith. Such is the significance of this
Conference and such are its aims and objects. Now as to the task before this
Conference, you will find our agenda to be a very meagre fare. There
is not much meat in it. But that is unavoidable. We cannot place before you
any agenda other than the one we have placed until we have reached
a decision on the preliminary question as to whether we agree upon the plan of
having such a conference and what its constitution should be. 1575
