NOTES - 51
tion of industry. Anticipating a big reduction in the total labour force as a result of these measures, new provisions were added to section 9 of the Industrial Disputes Act by Act 36 of 1956. The additional provisions of this section are :
9) Notice of change: No employer, who proposes to effect any change in the conditions of service applicable to any workmen in respect of any matter specified in the Fourth Schedule, shall effect such change:
a) Without giving to the Workmen likely to be affected by such change, a notice in the prescribed manner of the nature of change proposed to be effected, or
b) Within twentyone days of giving such change.
The Fourth Schedule of this Act covers among others the following conditions of service:
10) nationalisation, standardisation, or improvement of plant or^ technique which is likely to lead to retrenchment of workmen.
11) Any increase or reduction (other than casual) in the number of persons employed or to be employed in any occupation or process or department or shift (not occasioned by circumstances over which the employer has no control).
While the Act in itself is a black law tailored to protect the interests of the property owning class, the curious fact about the whole situation is that in almost all cases of rationalisation and computerisation in the past even the limited scope of these provisions were contravened. The Gokhale Commission on Job Security in Oil Companies has confirmed that those managements which resorted to rationalisation and automation did not give any such notice as contemplated in the Act. The report of the Committee on Automation headed by V M Dandekar has furnished some useful statistics in this respect (Table 1).
The anti-labour and undemocratic character of automation under the capitalist-landlord system in India is quite glaring. For instance, the Calcutta Branch of Galtex India Ltd has been, for sometime, trying to get rid of over a hundred clerks who remained surplus despite voluntary and involuntary separation plans. On October 21, 1966, during the Pooja holidays, in the dead of night, six representatives of the manage* ment and fifty coolies came with police escort and removed from the office all files, office documents, typewriters, comptometers and other equipment. The office staff, who came to work on the 24th morning, were amazed to find that not a single scrap of paper was left in the office. They could not believe that such open treachery was possible without the active connivance of the Government, for only a couple of weeks before they had apprehended such a possibility and had complained to the Central Government. To an enquiry by the Government, the Calcutta manager of Galtex India Ltd had assured that no such action was contemplated.
Judging by past performance, it can safely be concluded that there would be a net reduction of employment opportunities on account of computerisation. Many committees tod professional bodies which have