Any union securing more than 50 per cent of the votes cast by the workmen will be declared as sole bargaining agent, and the employer has to recognise it as such.

Labour minister Shanti Ranjan Ghatak told reporters that the rules, gazetted on August 4 this year and introduced from today, shall apply to all trade unions registered with the Registrar of Trade Unions for West Bengal.

The rules have been framed under the Trade Unions (West Bengal Amendment) Act of 1983 passed by the state assembly on September 21 that year but cleared by the President nearly a decade later, on September 30, 1992.

Earlier there was no law applicable to the state for recognition of one trade union to theexclusion of others.

Ghatak said the rules were framed after due consultations with employers' organisations and central trade unions. Legal opinion from law department and the advocate general was also obtained.

"The new rules are the most democratic and progressive ones ever introduced in any state of the country. They will ensure better industrial relations in the state," the labour minister claimed.

The salient feature of the Act and Rules is the procedure for elections to be conducted by the Registrar of Trade Unions through secret ballot system.

A union securing more than half the votes cast by the workmen will be declared as sole bargaining agent. If none of the trade unions secures more than 50 per cent of votes, unions securing a minimum of 10 per cent vote in case of a class of industry and a minimum of 15 per cent vote in case of any individual industrial unit shall be granted the status of a constituent member of joint bargaining council.

In such cases, the union securing more than 40per cent vote and the largest number of vote shall be granted the status of principal bargaining agent in the joint bargaining council.

If there is a single trade union in any industry or a class of industry and if applies for recognition, it shall be granted the status of sole bargaining agent provided other conditions are fulfilled.

Each contesting trade unions shall contest the election on a symbol which may either be reserved or free as in the assembly or Parliament elections. A reserved symbol will mean a symbol which has been chosen by a central trade union organisation and registered with the Registrar of Trade Unions.

Such reserved symbol shall be allowed to a central trade union only if it functions in at least three sectors of the industries other than agricultural sector and has not less than 50,000 members (excluding agricultural sector) in the state.