The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (“Code”) represents a significant step towards consolidating and rationalising India’s labour law framework, particularly in the domain of industrial harmony and collective labour relations. Among its core pillars are bi-partite forums and trade unions, which function as institutional mechanisms for dialogue, participation and dispute resolution between employers and workers. By providing structured platforms such as works committees, grievance redressal committees, negotiating unions and councils and by redefining the legal architecture governing trade unions, the Code seeks to promote cooperative industrial relations, reduce adversarial conflicts and ensure timely resolution of workplace issues. These mechanisms underscore the shift from reactive dispute settlement to preventive and participatory governance in industrial establishments.

What is a Works Committee and when can it be constituted?

A Works Committee is a bipartite body constituted in an industrial establishment where one hundred or more workers are employed or have been employed on any day during the preceding twelve months. The appropriate government may require the employer to constitute such a committee through a general or special order.

How is the Works Committee composed?

The Works Committee consists of representatives of the employer and the workers engaged in the establishment. The number of worker representatives must not be less than the number of employer representatives, ensuring balanced participation.

How are the representatives of workers selected for the Works Committee?

Worker representatives are chosen from among the workers engaged in the establishment. Their selection is carried out in consultation with the registered trade union, if any, connected with the establishment.

What are the duties and functions of the Works Committee?

The primary duty of the Works Committee is to promote harmony and good relations between the employer and workers. It comments on matters of common interest or concern and endeavours to resolve material differences of opinion relating to such matters.

What is a Grievance Redressal Committee?

A Grievance Redressal Committee is a forum established in every industrial establishment employing twenty or more workers, for the resolution of disputes arising out of individual grievances.

How is the Grievance Redressal Committee constituted?

The committee consists of an equal number of representatives of the employer and the workers, selected in a prescribed manner. The total membership cannot exceed ten members.

How is the chairperson of the Grievance Redressal Committee selected?

The chairperson is selected alternately from among employer and worker representatives on a rotational basis every year.

Is representation of women workers mandatory in the Grievance Redressal Committee?

Yes. Adequate representation of women workers is mandatory, and such representation must not be less than the proportion of women workers employed in the establishment.

Who can file a grievance before the Grievance Redressal Committee and within what time?

Any aggrieved worker may file an application relating to an individual grievance within one year from the date on which the cause of action........

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