INTRODUCTION   

The term 'industrial relations' meant to relationships among management and labour or among employees and their organisations which characterise or develop out of employment. Theoretically, there are two parties in the 'employment' relationship -management and labour. Both of the parties have to work in a spirit of cooperation, accommodation and adjustment. In their own mutual interest definite rules for co-existence are composed and adhered to. Over the years, the State has also come to play a crucial role in industrial relations - one, as initiator of policies and the other, as an employer by setting up tremendously large public sector.

The term 'industrial relations' has been described by different authors in different ways. Dale Yoder described it as "a relationship among management and employees or among employees and their organisations which characterise and develop out of employment".

In according to R A Lester, industrial relations "involve effort to have workable solutions among conflicting objectives and values, among incentive & economic safety, between industrial democracy & discipline, between and freedom & authority and between bargaining & cooperation".

According to the ILO, "industrial relations deal along with either the relationships between the state & the employers and the workers' organisation or the relation among the occupational organisations themselves". The ILO make use of the expression to declared such matters as "freedom of association & the shield of the right to organise, the application of the principle of the right to organise, and the right of collective agreements, collective bargaining, conciliation & arbitration & machinery for cooperation among the authorities and the occupational organisations at many levels of the economy.