INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT –

STANDING ORDERS ACT, 1946

RASHMI . S
• PREAMBLE : An Act requiring employers in industrial
establishments formally to define conditions of employment
under them.
• APPLICABILITY : It applies to every industrial establishment
wherein one hundred or more workmen are employed, or were
employed on any day of the preceding twelve months:
 Provided that the appropriate Government may, after giving
not less than two months’ notice of its intention so to do, by
notification in the Official Gazette, apply the provisions of
this Act to any industrial establishment employing such
number of number of persons less than one hundred as may be
specified in the notification

• “Certifying Officer” means a Labour Commissioner or a Regional Labour
Commissioner, and includes any other officer appointed by the
appropriate Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to
perform all or any of the functions of a Certifying Officer under
this Act:]
• “industrial establishment” means
 (i) an industrial establishment as defined in clause (ii) of
Section 2 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, or
 (ii) a factory as defined in clause (m) of Section 2 of the Factories
Act, 1948, or ]
• (iii) a railway as defined in clause (4) of Section 2 of the Indian
Railway Act, 1890, or
• (iv) the establishment of a person who, for the purpose of fulfilling
a contract with the owner of any industrial establishment, employs
workmen;


 MODEL STANDING ORDER-
• SCHEDULE 1A
MATTERS TO BE PROVIDED IN STANDING ORDERS UNDER THIS ACT
• 1. Classification of workmen, e.g., whether permanent, temporary, apprentices, probationers, or badlis.
• 2. Manner of intimating to workmen periods and hours of work, holidays, pay-days and wage rates.
• 3. Shift working.
• 4. Attendance and late coming.
• 5. Conditions of, procedure in applying for, and the authority which may grant leave and holidays.
• 6. Requirement to enter premises by certain gates, an liability to search.
• 7. Closing and reporting of sections of the industrial establishment, temporary stoppages of work and
the rights and liabilities of he employer and workmen arising there from.
• 8. Termination of employment, and the notice thereof to be given by employer and workmen.
• 9. Suspension or dismissal for misconduct, and acts or omissions which constitute misconduct.
• 10. Means of redress for workmen against unfair treatment or wrongful exactions by the employer or
his agents or servants.
• 11. Any other matter which may be prescribed.


 


•
 EXPLANATIONS
• BADLIS – casual laborers employed in the absence of permanent
worker.
• Attendance & late comers- how to deal with late comers.
• Liability to search – search all workmen / women at the factory
gates. Permission for entering / leaving through diff. gates –
prevent theft.
• Suspension of employees : Conditions for suspending them.
Ø if peace and harmony of factory is disturbed.
Ø Destruction of records / tamper of necessary documents.
•
• 10-A. Additional matters to be provided in Standing Orders
relating to industrial establishments in general
• (1) Medical aid in case of accident.
• (2) Railway travel facilities.
• (3) Method of filling vacancies.
• (4) Transfers.
• (5 ) Stoppage of work & reopening
• (6) Liability of manager of the
establishment or mine.
• (7) Service certificate.
• (8) Exhibition and supply of Standing Orders.”]
• (9) Disciplinary action for misconduct .
•
 LIST OF MISCONDUCTS
• Theft, fraud, or dishonesty in connection with the employer’s business or property.
• (b) Taking or giving of bribes or an illegal gratification whatsoever in connection with the
employer’s business or his own interests.
• (c) Willful insubordination or disobedience , whether alone or in conjunction with another or
others, or of any lawful or reasonable order of a superior. The order of the superior
should normally be in writing.
• (d)Habitual late attendance and habitual absence without leave or without sufficient cause .
• (e) Drunkenness, fighting or riotous, disorderly or indecent behaviors while on duty at the
place of work.
• (f) Habitual neglect of work.
• (g) Habitual indiscipline .
• (h)Smoking underground within the area in places where it is prohibited .
• (i) Causing willful damage to work in progress or to property of the employer .
• (j) Sleeping on duty.
• (k) Malingering or slowing down work.
• (l ) Acceptance of gifts from subordinate employees .
•

• (m) Conviction in any Court of Law for any criminal offence involving moral turpitude.
• (n) Continuous absence without permission and without satisfactory cause for more than ten
days.
• (o) Giving false information regarding one’s name, age, father ’s name, qualification or previous
service at the time of the employment.
• (p) Leaving work without permission or sufficient reason.
(r) Threatening, abusing or assaulting any superior or co-worker.
(t) Habitual money-lending.
(u) Preaching of or inciting to violence.
( u)
 Abetment of or attempt at abetment of any of the above acts of misconduct.
5 Going on illegal strike either singly or with other workers with out giving 14 day ’s previous
notice.
(x) Disclosing to any unauthorized person of any confidential information in regard to the
working or process of the establishment which may come into the possession of the
workman in the course of his work.
(y) Refusal to accepted any charge-sheet or order or notice communicated in writing .
(ab) Failure or refusal to wear or use any protective equipment given by the employers.
(ac) Sexual harassment of co- worker.
 PUNISHMENTS
• Depending upon the gravity of the proven
misconduct, the punishment is determined.
•
• Fine
• Stoppage of Increments
• Demotion / Reversion
• Dismissal / Discharge.
 STEPS IN CHANGING A MODEL
S.O TO A CERTIFIED S.O.
Ø Submission of Draft Standing Orders: Within 6 months from the date this Act becomes applicable to the
industrial establishment, the employer should submit 5 copies to the draft to the certifying officer.
Ø Certification of Standing orders: submitted 2 Regional Labour Commissions / Commissioner.
Ø 1 copy forwarded by Certifying officer to the trade union.
Ø Discussion between the union, employer & the certifying officer – for changes, modifications or
amendments in standing orders.
Ø Certifying officer decides if any modifications is needed & certifies the standing order.
Ø Date of operation of standing orders .-- Standing orders shall, unless an appeal is preferred under
Section 6, come into operation on the expiry of thirty days from the date on which authenticated
copies thereof are sent under sub-section (3) of Section 5.
• Duration and modification of standing orders .-- (1) Standing orders finally certified under this
Act shall not, except on agreement between the employer and the workmen [or a trade union or other
representative body of the workmen] be liable to modification until the expiry of six months from the
date on which the standing orders or the last modifications thereof came in to operation.
• 12 - A . Temporary application of model standing orders .- -- (1)
Notwithstanding anything contained in Sections to12, for the period
commencing on the date on which this Act becomes applicable to an
industrial establishment and ending with the date on which the standing
orders as finally certified under this Act come into operation under
Section 7 in that establishment, the prescribed model standing orders
shall be deemed to be adopted in that establishment, and the provisions
of Section 9, sub-section (2) of Section 13 and Section 13-A shall apply
to such model standing orders as they apply to the standing orders so
certified.
Explanation : Till the certification of the Standing orders takes place, the


interim period between the date of applicability and the date of

certification by the certifying officer, the model S.O , will govern the
terms & conditions of employment – recruitment, termination…
Any disputes arising before the certification of S.O , will be settled by the


courts considering the model standing orders only….