One Side of the Story
It is true that currently, the Model Standing Orders of all the States include apprentice or trainee as a category of workman. The employer can draft the standing orders applicable for his establishment keeping the MSO and the provisions of the IESO Act 1947. He can also define trainee and training schemes in the standing orders for the engagement of trainees in his establishment. Whether in the absence of these provisions, the employer can engage the trainees under the training scheme framed and established in his establishment is the question that is deliberated in this article in addition to explaining the legality of the trainee and training scheme.
The substantive provision to conclude whether a trainee is a worker or not is the definition of workman under section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and in the case of IR Code 2020 worker definition under section 2(zr). If the engagement of a trainee can escape the tests to conclude that the trainee is not a worker under these definitions, then even in the absence of...
