New City s First Citizens

berations, or the Standing Labour Committee should have taken this turn. The documentation on the agenda of the Committee prepared by the Labour Ministry as well, as the opening address of the Union Labour Minister made it ampjy clear that Government did not feel that Anything was seriously or basically wrong with the existing set-up for regulation ,of industrial relations. Almost every major recommendation of the NLC Which might have amounted to a departure from the existing set-up or practice in this field had been expressly disapproved by Government even before the SLC met. The possibility of workers' ballot as an alternative procedure for union recognition, conciliation as' well as adjudication of dis- putes by the IRC's, 30-day freedom of strike in non-essential services, all these were opposed by Government. In the face of this smugness on the part of Government' coupled with its determination to retain its existing powers, there was very little that the SLC could do. Government consented to even the watered-down IRCs only when confronted with the charge that it was throwing out a proposal that had the united support of labour and employers- The total effect of the recommendations that seem to have emerged from the SLC deliberations could well be just the reverse of what the NLC had desired. Besides the Government, either labour or management will have the poWerto refer a dispute directly for adjudication. The 'essential service' category will remain an open one, like the present 'public utility service', to be enlarged according to the convenience of State Governments. Endless restraints are to be imposed on the freedom of action of the recognised union in the name of preventing unfair labour practices