Employment Dispute Resolution: Contemporary Trends And Challenges
Jatin Sharma, Gautam Buddha University
Dr. Anita Yadav, Gautam Buddha University
1. Introduction
The relationships in employment are a key pillar of the economical growth and social stability in any given modern society. The relationship between the employees and employers is not just contractual but it roots deep in the issue on the power relations, rights, responsibilities, and expectations. With the ever-evolving environment of workplaces due to globalisation, digitalisation, and transformation of structures of the labour market, employment has become more complicated. This intricacy, however, has seen a parallel increase in disagreements as a result of employment relations.
Employment conflicts today are much more than the examples of wages and working conditions. They cover a broad spectrum of issues such as wrongful termination, discrimination in the workplace, sexual harassment, unfair methods of labour, breach of contractual terms and the gig and platform-based employment issues. The multiplication of the employment models, including the contractual work, distance work, and informal work, has also made it even more difficult to resolve such conflicts, in many cases obscuring the borders of the rights and duties of the employer and the employee.
In India, a formal legal framework has historically mediated employment disputes, with most occurring under laws like the industrial disputes, 1947 law and occasionally, as of late, the Labour codes. These frameworks give the option of adjudicating using labour courts, industrial tribunals and other quasi-judicial. Although these mechanisms are crucial in making sure that there is legal accountability and protection of workers rights, they have been criticized as time- consuming, procedure-bound, resource-intensive. Not only does delay in adjudication deny the parties the right to justice, but also heightens tensions between the parties, which in many instances result in irredeemable rupture of employment relationships.
