Standing Order PDF
Standing Order PDF
Preamble – To define with sufficient precision “the conditions of employment" and to make
those conditions known to workmen.
Rohtak & Hissar District Electricity Supply Co. Ltd. v. State of Uttar Pradesh- The act
seeks to bring about uniformity in terms and conditions of employment in industrial
establishment and thereby to minimize industrial conflicts.
Bagalkot Cement Co. Ltd. v. R.K. Pathan (1962) The object of the Act, as we have already
seen, was to require the employers to make the conditions of employment precise and definite
and the Act ultimately intended to prescribe these conditions in the form of standing orders so
that what used to be governed by a contract hereto before would now be governed by the
statutory standing orders.
1. Whether Statutory?
Bagalkot Cement Co. Ltd. v. R.K. Pathan (1962) The Act has made relevant provisions for
making standing orders, which after they are certified, constitute the statutory terms of
employment between industrial establishments in question and their employees.
Firstly, it will open the door for litigation under Art.32 & 226. Secondly, Tribunals &
Certifying officer shall not be allowed to make any amendment. Thirdly, there are provisions
for amendment by the parties. Fourthly, it is not a delegated legislation.
Firstly, Certifying Officer is not one of the decision makers as required by the ID Act.
Secondly, No adjudication of any industrial dispute is being done. Thirdly, if we treat SO as
award, Strike and Lock-Out shall be prohibited. Fourthly, Penalties are there only for the
employer.
The government's participation in the certification process does not alter the contractual nature
of the standing orders which can be regarded as "a sort of register". The statutory direction to
embody the agreements in a certain form does not alter the real character. The substance is the
quality of being binding in accordance, more or less, with the free will of the parties. Hence
the standing orders, as formally brought into effect under the Act, do not lose their inherent
contractual quality.
Buckingham & Carnatic Co. v. Venkatayya (1963) The certified standing orders represent
the relevant terms and conditions of service in a statutory form and they are binding on the
parties as least as much, if not more, as private contracts embodying similar terms and
conditions of service.
Guest, Keen, Williams Ltd. v. Sterling & Ors (1959) that The standing orders certified under
the Act no doubt become parts of the terms of employment by operation of S. 7; but if an
industrial dispute arises in respect of such orders and it is referred to the tribunal by the
appropriate Government, the tribunal has jurisdiction to deal with it on the merits. This position
is not and cannot be, disputed.
Definition 2(zj) "standing orders" means orders relating to matters set-out in the First Schedule;
(1) The provisions of this Chapter shall apply to every industrial establishment wherein three
hundred or more than three hundred workers, are employed, or were employed on any day of
the preceding twelve months.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the provisions of this Chapter shall
not apply to an industrial establishment in so far as the workers employed therein are persons
to whom the Fundamental and Supplementary Rules, Civil Services (Classification, Control
and Appeal) Rules, Civil Services (Temporary Service) Rules, Revised Leave Rules, Civil
Service Regulations, Civilians in Defence Service (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules
or the Indian Railway Establishment Code or any other rules or regulations that may be notified
in this behalf by the appropriate Government, apply.
(1) The Central Government shall make model standing orders relating to conditions of service
and other matters incidental thereto or connected therewith.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sections 30 to 36, for the period commencing on the
date on which this section becomes applicable to an industrial establishment and ending with
the date on which the standing orders as finally certified under this Code come into operation
under section 33 in that establishment, the model standing order referred to in sub-section (1)
shall be deemed to be adopted in that establishment and the provisions of sub-section (2) of
section 33 and section 35 shall apply to such model standing orders as they apply to the standing
orders so certified.
An employer or Trade Union or the negotiating union or negotiating council, or where there is
no negotiating union or negotiating council in an industrial establishment or undertaking, any
union or such representative body of the workers of the industrial establishment or undertaking,
if not satisfied with the order of the certifying officer given under sub-section (5) of section 30,
may file an appeal within sixty days of receipt of the order of the certifying officer to the
appellate authority appointed by the appropriate Government, by notification, and such
authority shall dispose of the appeal in such manner as may be prescribed.
(2) The text of a standing order as finally certified under this Code shall be maintained by the
employer in such language and in such manner for the information of the concerned workers
as may be prescribed.
(1) The standing orders certified under sub-section (8) of section 30 shall not, except on an
agreement between the employer and the workers, or a negotiating union or a Trade Union or
other representative body of the workers, be liable to modification until the expiry of six
months from the date on which the standing orders or the last modifications thereof came into
operation.
(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (1), an employer or worker or a Trade Union or
other representative body of the workers may apply to the certifying officer to have the standing
orders modified in such application as may be prescribed, which shall be accompanied by such
copies of the modifications proposed to be made, and where the modifications are proposed to
be made by agreement between the employer and the workers or a Trade Union or other
representative body of the workers, a certified copy of that agreement shall be filed alongwith
the application.
(3) The foregoing provisions of this Code shall apply in respect of an application under sub-
section (2) as they apply to the certification of the first time standing orders.
If any question arises as to the application, or interpretation, of the standing orders certified
under sub-section (8) of section 30 or the modification made therein by an agreement entered
into under sub-section (5) of that section, the employer or any worker or workers concerned or
the Trade Union in relation to the workers employed in the industrial establishment or
undertaking, wherein the question has arisen, may apply to the Tribunal, within the local limits
of whose territorial jurisdiction such establishment or the office, section or branch of the
undertaking is situated, to decide the question and such Tribunal shall, after giving all the
parties concerned a reasonable opportunity of being heard, decide the question and its decision
shall be final and binding on the concerned employer and the workers.
❖ Another important addition (which is not present in Industrial Employment (Standing Orders)
Act, 1946) proposed under the code of Industrial Relations, 2020 is –
Section 38 Time limit for completing disciplinary proceedings and liability to pay
subsistence allowance-
(1) Where any worker is suspended by the employer pending investigation or inquiry into
complaints or charges of misconduct against him, such investigation or inquiry, or where there
is an investigation followed by an inquiry, both the investigation and inquiry shall be completed
ordinarily within a period of ninety days from the date of suspension.
(2) The standing orders certified under sub-section (8) of section 30 or modified under section
35 shall provide that where a worker is suspended as referred to in sub-section (1), the employer
in relation to an industrial establishment or undertaking shall pay to such worker employed in
such industrial establishment or undertaking subsistence allowance at the rates specified in sub-
section (3) for the period during which such worker is placed under suspension pending
investigation or inquiry into complaints or charges of misconduct against such worker.
(3) The amount of subsistence allowance payable under sub-section (2) shall be—
(a) at the rate of fifty per cent. of the wages which the worker was entitled to immediately
preceding the date of such suspension, for the first ninety days of suspension; and
(b) at the rate of seventy-five per cent. of such wages for the remaining period of suspension,
if the delay in the completion of disciplinary proceedings against such worker is not directly
attributable to the conduct of such worker.