Industrial Relations & Discipline

Meaning of Industrial Discipline:

Industrial discipline refers to the orderly working of the employees of an industrial undertaking under established rules, regula­tions and conventions. Discipline is a force that prompts an individual to observe rules, regulations, and procedures to attain an objective. In the broad sense, discipline means orderliness — the opposite of confusion. In an organization, discipline is the orderly conduct of its members.

Maintenance of Industrial Discipline:

The maintenance of industrial discipline is a difficult and highly complicated task and needs very efficient handling.

Varied are the ways that can be adopted, but a few of them are outlined below:

1) Workers are to be consulted while framing rules and regulations.

2) Rules and regulations should be properly framed.

3) There should not be any communication gap between the man­agement and the workers.

4) New workers should be given proper orientation.

5) Where necessary, charts, graphs and other methods should be used so that the workers may understand them.

6) Penalty for breaking rules should be used only where it is abso­lutely necessary.

 

7) Victimization should not be the aim of punishment.

8) Favoritism, nepotism, and casteism should be avoided.

9) Managerial staff should never be breakers of law which they have framed for enforcing discipline.

10) The code of conduct or discipline should be framed and followed.

11) A disciplinary committee should be formed.

12) A piece of suitable machinery should be set up to listen to the appeals made by the aggrieved party.

Code of Discipline in Indian Industry:

The 15th session of the Indian Labour Conference held in July 1957, discussed the problem of discipline in industry and formulated certain principles for removing employee grievances and settling indus­trial disputes by mutual negotiation, conciliation, and voluntary arbi­tration.