The Supreme Court has held that Industrial Relations Act (IRA) 2012 is a valid piece of legislation, and National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) formed under the Act has jurisdiction to decide the labour disputes, relating to the employees/workers of companies/corporations/institutions/establishments functioning in more than one province.
The court said the IRA 2012, being a procedural law, would be applicable retrospectively, wef, 01.05.2010 when the IRO 2008 ceased to exist; and M/s Shaheen Airport Services is not a charitable organization and IRA 2012 is applicable on it as it is operating in more than one province. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, after hearing the arguments of appellants and the federation lawyer had reserved the judgment on 18-01-2018.
After the Eighteenth Amendment, the Parliament enacted the Industrial Relations Act 2012 which was challenged before all the provincial high courts and Islamabad High Court mainly on the ground that the same is incompetently enacted by the Parliament as the subject of labor and the trade unions was no more in the legislative domain of the Parliament; rather within the domain of the provincial assemblies. All the high courts held in favor of the constitutionality/validity of the IRA 2012.
Prior to the 18th Amendment, the subject of labor and trade unions was in the domain of both the Parliament as well as the provincial assemblies. The labor laws enacted by the Parliament were applicable in the federation as well as the federating units.
The judgment authored by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said that the federal legislature has extra-territorial authority but no such extra-territorial authority has been conferred on the provincial legislature by the Constitution; therefore, the he federal legislature does, but the provincial legislature does not, have legislative competence to legislate to regulate the trade unions functioning at trans-provincial level.
The judgment said the matters relating to trade unions and labor disputes, etc, having been dealt with and protected under the International Conventions, are covered under entries no 3 and 32 of Part-I of the FLL. Thus, the federal legislature has legislative competence to legislate in this regard.
The judgment also said that under the command of entry No 13 in Part-II of the FLL, the federation has competence to enact laws relating to the inter-provincial matters, while entry No 18 thereof further enlarges the scope of the said entry; therefore, the federal legislature has legislative competence to legislate in this regard too.
It says the IRA 2012 neither does defeat the object of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution nor does it destroy or usurp the provincial autonomy, therefore the IRA 2012 has been validly enacted by the Parliament and is intra vires the Constitution.
The judgment noted that the workers of the establishments/industries functioning in the Islamabad capital territory or carrying on business in more than one provinces shall be governed by the federal legislation ie IRA 2012; whereas, the workers of establishments/industries functioning or carrying on business only within the territorial limits of a province shall be governed by the concerned provincial legislations.
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