Previous Year Question
In India, which one of the following compiles information on industrial disputes, closures, retrenchments and lay-offs in factories employing workers?
Central Statistics Office
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
Labour Bureau
National Technical Manpower Information System
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
The Labour Bureau is an attached office of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. It collects, analyses and publishes statistics relating to wages, employment, labour conditions, consumer price indices and industrial relations.
Information relating to industrial disputes may include:
Number of strikes and lockouts.
Number of workers involved in disputes.
Mandays lost.
Closure of industrial establishments.
Retrenchment, or termination of workers declared surplus.
Lay-offs, involving the employer’s temporary inability to provide work.
Loss of production, wages or working days.
The data-collection mechanism uses information supplied by State Labour Departments and Regional Labour Commissioners (Central). These authorities obtain basic information from the affected primary units and transmit it for compilation by the Labour Bureau.
Distinction among important terms:
Strike: Collective stoppage of work by workers.
Lockout: Temporary closure of a workplace or suspension of work by the employer.
Lay-off: Temporary inability of an employer to provide work because of shortage of raw materials, power failure, machinery breakdown or other specified reasons; it does not necessarily terminate the employment relationship.
Retrenchment: Termination of a worker’s service, otherwise than as disciplinary punishment, such as when the worker is declared surplus.
Closure: Permanent closing of an establishment or a part of it.
Examination of the options:
Option (a): The Central Statistics Office dealt with National Accounts and various economic statistics and was later integrated into the NSO structure. It is not the correct agency for the specified industrial-dispute data.
Option (b): DPIIT deals with industrial policy, investment, FDI and internal trade.
Option (c): The Labour Bureau compiles information on industrial disputes, closures, retrenchments and lay-offs.
Option (d): The National Technical Manpower Information System concerns technical manpower and education-employment information, not industrial disputes.