Intuc Challenges Bms Supremacy In Court

In the ongoing war for supremacy in the trade union front, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) has approached the Delhi High Court following the alleged `manipulated' loss of its 50-year old supremacy to Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).

Justice C M Nayar has fixed the case for hearing on May 6 after issuing notices to all recognised central trade unions, the union labour ministry and the chief labour commissioner.

In its petition, Intuc alleged that there had been large-scale manipulation of the strength of the trade unions published in a labour ministry report on the advice of the chief labour commissioner.

Counsel for the petitioner, P S Khera, contended that against the claim of Intuc that it had around 50 lakh members, including those in agricultural sector, the report put its membership at 27 lakh.

He pointed out that the report had put the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh as the largest trade union with a membership of 31 lakh. Intuc has prayed for an early disposal of the matter as the government would nominate representatives of various trade unions on the basis of their strength to the international labour organisation annual meeting to be held in Geneva from June 1.

According to the rules, all trade unions with membership of five lakh or over were to be recognised as central trade unions, which would be entitled to negotiate with the government regarding various labour problems. In 1989, all the central trade unions and the government agreed to verify the membership of the unions and the procedure was settled at the Indian labour conference. The exercise, though to be completed under the supervision of the chief labour commissioner, it was agreed that any dispute regarding the membership would be referred to the labour ministry.

Intuc alleged that though it had shown its membership around 50 lakh and disputed the findings of the chief labour commissioner, the latter totally bypassed the agreed rules by not referring the same to the labour ministry.

According to Indian Labour Conference guidelines for assessing the strength of the trade unions, if the labour commissioner failed to resolve a dispute in the membership front, he would refer the matter to labour ministry. The ministry would then refer the matter to an independent agency for evaluation.

Intuc has sought the quashing of the verification report which showed the membership of BMS at 31 lakh, Intuc