Jet Imbroglio -Union vs Association

As per Section 2 (s) .- of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947.- "workman" means any person (including an apprentice) employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, and for the purposes of any proceeding under this Act in relation to an industrial dispute, includes any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched in connection with, or as a consequence of, that dispute, or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that dispute, but does not include any such person

(i) who is subject to the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), or the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), or the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957); or

(ii) who is employed in the police service or as an officer or other employee of a prison; or

(iii) who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity; or

(iv) who, being employed in a supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding one thousand six hundred rupees per month or exercises, either by the nature of the duties attached to the office or by reason of the powers vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial nature.

My View

Going purely by the above definition, civil pilots do skilled manual labour, and are not employed mainly in a managerial or administarative capacity. Their decisions ,barring those related to actual performance of manual labour ie flying, do not impact the wider organisation.Therefore it is clear that they are entitld to form a union which is a right granted to workmen. On the other hand employees who are working in an administative/ managerial capacity as officers can only form an association.Since the pilots do not fall in this category, I do not know why they should not be allowed to form a union, and thus have more rights under the ID Act. But on the flip side they will have to settle for the title of 'workmen' and not 'officers', pay and perks notwithstanding, as these are purely a function of the demand-supply gap in the present context.