Statutory jurisdiction under the IDA is strictly dependent on whether the establishment is an 'Industry' and the claimant is a 'Workman'.
1. The Definition of 'Industry' (Section 2(j))
Any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture, or calling of employers and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft, or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen.
A 7-judge bench of the Supreme Court formulated the historic "Triple Test" to define industry:
- Systematic Activity: Must be organized and continuous.
- Employer-Employee Cooperation: Cooperation to produce goods or services.
- Public/Consumer Orientation: Production of goods/services to satisfy human wants (excludes spiritual/religious services).
Consequently, hospitals, universities, research institutes, and even charitable trusts were held to be industries if they satisfied the triple test, regardless of profit motive.
2. The Definition of 'Workman' (Section 2(s))
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.
- Exclusions: Excludes persons subject to the Army/Navy Acts, police personnel, and those employed in a managerial or administrative capacity, or in a supervisory capacity earning more than Rs. 10,000 per month (under the old threshold).
3. Industrial Dispute (Section 2(k))
Any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between workmen and workmen, which is connected with the employment, non-employment, terms of employment, or conditions of labour of any person.
- Section 2A Amendment: A dispute relating to the discharge, dismissal, retrenchment, or termination of an individual workman is deemed to be an industrial dispute, even if no other workmen or union sponsors it.