THE core purpose of the existence of industrial relations law is to provide a mechanism for quick and amicable resolution of disputes or differences between employers and workmen or between workmen and workmen which is related with the terms of employment or the conditions of work.

Individual grievance of a worker in respect of any right guaranteed or secured to him by or under any law or any award or settlement, which is in force, has not been called as `dispute` under law.

However, in general terms that is also a dispute between a worker and his employer, which requires resolution. Disputes between an employer and his workers represented by their union are usually resolved through the process of collective bargaining. If the dispute is not settled at that level and the conciliation proceedings before the government-appointed conciliator also fail, then the party raising the dispute may either take the matter to court or seek arbitration with mutual consensus of both the parties.

In the IRO 2002 a progressive clause to compensate the worker in money terms to redress his grievance was introduced which has been unfortunately done away with by the Industrial Relations Act 2008.

This useful provision had provided opportunity to both the employers and the aggrieved workers to reach `out of court settlement`, which process not only expedites the resolution of disputes but is also instrumental in reducing the workload on judicial forums.

In countries where democracy at the government level is well established, the same democratic thinking and approach prevails amongst all state functionaries and institutions. People at every level tend to continuously strive to bring about positive changes in the prevailing policies and systems for the betterment of people and improvement in their living standards.

A democratic environment provides impetus to people to generate creative ideas for the general good of society. Recently, the Workers-Employers Bilateral Council of Pakistan has sent me a write-up by Dr B. C. Gupta, principal secretary to the government of Indian Punjab. In 2000 Dr Gupta, then serving as secretary, department of labour and employment, had conceptualised and implemented the idea of settlement of labour disputes through Lok Adalats (people`s courts) in Indian Punjab.

As in Pakistan, the prevalent methodology in India for resolution of disputes involves painful litigation which is time-consuming and expensive. The multi-tier, multi-layer system of dispute resolution with provisions like appeal, review, revision at every step, leads to inordinate delays in the finalisation of all civil matters, including industrial disputes.

The concept of alternative dispute resolution through Lok Adalats was made successful with the active support and cooperation of all the social partners in the disputes like the employers, workers, trade unions, advocates, judicial officers and officials of the labour department.

Huge pendency of labour disputes in various courts in the Indian Punjab was reduced to a large extent by a pro-active approach by ensuring a constant dialogue between various social partners through formal and informal methods, by making them reach a fair and amicable settlement and then to obtain the seal of the court by organising Lok Adalats as provided in the statutory mechanism.

The process helped achieve spectacular results leading to speedy and inexpensive justice to the poor litigants. Only those cases are taken to the Lok Adalats where the parties to the dispute reached a settlement voluntarily and on the refusal of even one party to do so, the cases are decided as per the normal traditional procedure.

Once a settlement is arrived at between the parties in a Lok Adalat, there is finality to the adjudication and there is no further agitation in the higher courts and hence the desired objective of ensuring speedy adjudication is adequately achieved.

Let us also give this system a try in Pakistan where the labour appellate tribunals were revived in 2008 after a lapse of seven years, with the objective of speedy settlement of industrial disputes and expeditious disposal of individual labour cases.

PARVEZ RAHIM
Karachi