Immunities in trade disputes: Criminal and Civil

A strike at a Mumbai port stops the cargo. The port trust’s lawyer says the union leaders have induced hundreds of men to break their contracts, and that is a civil wrong; the police say that the leaders agreed among themselves to bring the port to a halt, and that is a conspiracy. If either argument worked every time, no union could ever call a strike and survive. The law therefore gives unions a shield. The question is how wide it is and where it stops.

In two minutes

Sections 16 and 17 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 protect a registered Trade Union, its office-bearers and members from civil suit for inducing breach of contract and interfering with trade, and from punishment for criminal conspiracy, when they act in furtherance of a trade-union or industrial dispute; the protection is limited and does not cover an agreement to commit an offence.

The rest of this chapter

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