Rule 19. Criteria recognizing a single registered Trade Union of workers as sole negotiating union of workers under sub-section (2) of section 14 Manner verification membership Trade Unions in an industrial establishment under sub-sections (3) and (4) of section

for 19. Where there is only one registered Trade Union operating in an industrial establishment having its membership not less than 30 percent of the total workers employed in the industrial establishment, then the employer of such industrial establishment shall recognize such Trade Union as sole negotiating union of the workers

(1) (a) The State Government shall appoint a of 20. verification officer (hereinafter in this rule, of . referred to as verification offficer) for the of purpose of verification of membership of the Trade Unions in the industrial establishment who shall not have any interest with any of the Trade Unions in the industrial membership establishment, whose verification is to be carried out by him:

Provided that the process for recognition of the negotiating union or the negotiating council, as the case may be, shall commence three months before the expiry of the tenure of the existing recognition period of the negotiating union or the negotiating council, as the case may be, recognized by the employer under the Code.

(b) The verification officer may utilize the services of other officers to assist him depending upon the quantum of work of membership verification

(c) The verification officer shall carry out the work of membership verification in the industrial establishment within the time as determined by the State Government.

(2) The employer of the industrial establishment shall bear all expenses and make arrangements in connection with the verification of membership of trade unions under sub rule (1).

(3) (a) The Trade Unions which satisfy the following conditions may submit an application to the employer of the industrial establishment to accord status of negotiating union or the representatives of negotiating council of the workers, as the case may be, namely such Trade Union has a valid registration under the Trade Unions Act, 1926 (16 of 1926) and continuing as such or has the registration under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (35 of 2020), as the case may be; and

(b) The application for recognition made by Trade Union shall be accompanied with a copy of the registration certificate, a copy of list of members, details of the membership a copy of latest annual subscription and return of the trade union submitted to the Registrar of Trade Unions.

(4) In case the negotiating union or negotiating council, as the case may be, has been constituted under the Code, the employer of the industrial establishment shall initiate action before expiry of the tenure of negotiating union or negotiating council, as the case may be, sufficiently in advance but not later than three months bcföre the expiry of the tenure of negotiating union or negotiating council, as the case may be;

(5) The date of reckoning shall be fixed by the verification officer for the industrial establishment for the purpose of verification of membership of the trade unions.

(6) The employer of the establishment shall forward the documents and records submitted by trade unions, to the verification officer.

(7) On receipt of the documents and records, the verification officer shall scrutinize the records and documents submitted by the trade union to ascertain the status of registration of trade unions and related matters;

(8) The verification officer shall hold meeting with representatives of employer of industrial establishment and all participating Trade Unions to decide about the process of verification of the membership of Trade Unions through secret ballot.

(9) The employer may, in consultation with the verification officer deploy an electronic process for conducting the election over an information technology application, online platform or like other platform.

(10) Verification of membership of Trade Unions through secret ballot.-

(i) The verification officer shall convene meeting of representatives of all registered Trade Unions functioning in the industrial establishment at least sixty days before the date of actual voting, to decide-

(a) publication of voters list;

(b) date, time, mode of voting, place of voting;

(c) date, time and place of counting; and .(d) other modalities relating to secret ballot.

(ii) The verification officer shall cause the minutes of the meeting to be prepared and signed by all participating Trade Unions. All participating Trade Unions shall be allotted symbols in the same meeting. If no decision could be taken regarding date, time, mode of voting, place of voting, allotment of symbols, date, time and place of counting and like other matters in the meeting, then, the decision of the verification officer shall be final and he shall publish the schedule, program and procedure of such secret ballot election.

(iii) All workers whose names are borne on the muster roll of the industrial establishment on the date of reckoning shall be eligible to cast their vote.

(iv) The employer of the industrial establishment shall prepare a voter list based on the names of workers recorded in the muster roll referred to in clause (iii). This voter list shall include the worker's name, father's name, designation, worker serial number/identity card number issued by the employer, and the name of the workplace. Afterreceiving the approval of the Verification Officer, the final voter list will be published by the employer and displayed on the notice board at the main entrance of the industrial establishment and on the website (if any). A copy of such voter list will also be sent to the participating trade associations by hand,by registered post, or by electronic means. of the name of the participating Trade Unions with the symbol allotted to them on the notice board at the main entrance and website, if any, of the industrial establishment within two days of finalization of the list.

(vi) The voting and counting of votes shall be held on the date, time and place fixed by the verification officer under the supervision of the verification officer and during the counting, agents of all participating Trade Unions shall be allowed to remain present

(vii) After final counting of votes, the result shall be declared by the verification offficer. The result sheet shall contain the name of all Trade Unions participated in election, total number of votes polled and the number of votes cast in favour of each of the trade unions which participated in the election.

(11) Submission of verification report to the employer.- The verification officer shall submit verification report along with the result sheet to the employer of industrial establishment.