From 50 Years Ago: Hair Splitting at Labour Conference

From the limited purpose of constituting a tripartite machinery for settling industrial disputes, the Indian Labour Conference has grown into a platform where “all labour can meet all employers on a national scale” to f­ormulate principles and policies to govern different aspects of industrial relations…

Some ‘letting-off’ of steam by both employers and employees was perhaps to be expected. But what struck one was that on every major issue which came up before the session representatives of employers and employees expressed divergent opinions. In fact, the Drafting Committee failed to record the conclusions of the Conference since the representatives of workers and employers could not agree on many vital points…