Labour Management Today without Right to Organize and Collectively Bargain

This paper examines how the employers in India are moving ahead fast in managing workforce without the latter having the right to organize and collectively bargain. Accordingly, the various factors militating against this democratic right of workers in terms of the legal framework of labour relations, legal boundaries of collective bargaining, proposed amendments to the Trade Union Act, judicial precedents, Essential Services and Maintenance Act, Special Economic Zones and National Industrial Manufacturing Zones, are elaborated. All these factors have led to a very defensive trade union movement and minimum wages as maximum for most workers and overall decline in wage share. By way of conclusion, industrial unionism and collective bargaining are proposed as the effective alternatives to promoting labour welfare.