Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 Pakistan: A Complete Guide

The Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 is the Pakistani law that governed how trade unions are formed and registered, how a collective bargaining agent is chosen, and how disputes between employers and workmen are settled. It was promulgated as Ordinance No. XCI of 2002 and published in the Gazette of Pakistan on 26 October 2002. This guide explains the whole Ordinance in plain language, section by section, and gives you the full official PDF to read and download on this page.

If you are a student, a lawyer, an HR professional, a trade union worker or an employer, this page is your starting point. Read the summary first, then open the full text in the PDF box below and go to the exact section you need.

Read the Full Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 PDF

The box below carries the complete Gazette text of the Ordinance, all 36 pages and 82 sections, exactly as published. You can view it on this page or download it for offline reading, printing and citation in assignments, cases and research.

Download the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 PDF

File details: Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, 26 October 2002. Ordinance No. XCI of 2002. Contains Chapters I to IX, sections 1 to 82 and the Schedule of public utility services.

Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 at a Glance

Full name	Industrial Relations Ordinance, 2002
Ordinance number	No. XCI of 2002
Published	26 October 2002, Gazette of Pakistan
Extent	The whole of Pakistan
Purpose	To amend, consolidate and rationalise the law on trade unions, employer and workman relations, and the avoidance and settlement of differences and disputes between them
Structure	9 chapters, 82 sections and 1 Schedule
Law it replaced	Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969
Main institutions	Registrar of Trade Unions, Labour Courts, National Industrial Relations Commission, Conciliators and Arbitrators

What Is the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002?

Industrial relations means the working relationship between employers and the people they employ. When that relationship is left without rules, every disagreement about pay, hours, dismissal or union rights can turn into a strike, a lock out or a court case with no clear path. The Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002, often shortened to IRO 2002, supplied those rules in one consolidated law.

Its preamble states the object clearly. The law exists to regulate the formation of trade unions, to regulate and improve relations between employers and workmen, and to provide a method for avoiding and settling any differences or disputes that arise between them. Every chapter of the Ordinance serves one of those three objects.

Objectives of the Ordinance

• To protect the freedom of association of workmen and employers, linked to Article 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
• To create a clear registration system for trade unions and federations of trade unions.
• To identify one recognised voice for workers in an establishment through the collective bargaining agent.
• To encourage settlement of disputes through negotiation, conciliation and arbitration before a strike or lock out.
• To give Labour Courts and the National Industrial Relations Commission power to decide disputes that cannot be settled.
• To ban and punish unfair labour practices on the part of both employers and workmen.

Scope and Application: Who Is Covered and Who Is Not

Under section 1, the Ordinance extends to the whole of Pakistan and came into force at once. It applies to all persons employed in any establishment, group of establishments or industry, with listed exceptions. It does not apply to persons employed in the Police or the Defence Services of Pakistan, in installations exclusively connected with the Armed Forces, by the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation, the Security Papers Limited or the Pakistan Mint, in the administration of the State other than workmen of Railways, Post, Telegraph and Telephone departments, by institutions maintained for the treatment or care of sick, infirm, destitute or mentally unfit persons that are not run on a commercial basis, by institutions established for payment of old age pensions or workers welfare, and as members of watch and ward, security or fire service staff of an oil refinery or of establishments engaged in the production, transmission or distribution of natural gas, petroleum products, or of a seaport or an airport.

The Federal Government could also suspend the application of the Ordinance to an establishment or industry in the public interest for a period of up to six months at a time, by an order published in the official Gazette.

Key Definitions in Section 2

Section 2 is the dictionary of the Ordinance. These are the terms you will meet again and again, explained in simple words.

Term	Meaning in plain language
Workman	Any person employed in an establishment or industry for remuneration, directly or through a contractor, other than a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity. For dispute proceedings it also includes a person who has been dismissed, discharged, retrenched or laid off in connection with the dispute.
Employer	The person or body that employs workmen in an establishment under a contract of employment, including successors, managers, proprietors, directors and contractors who procure labour for another establishment.
Establishment	Any office, firm, factory, society, undertaking, company, shop, premises or enterprise that employs workmen for any business or industry, including all its departments and branches.
Industry	Any business, trade, manufacture, service, occupation or employment, an organised economic activity of producing goods or services for sale, other than activity set up exclusively for charitable purposes.
Industrial dispute	Any dispute or difference between employers and workmen, or between workmen and workmen, connected with employment, non employment, terms of employment or conditions of work.
Trade union	Any combination of workers formed primarily to further and defend the interests and rights of workers in any industry or establishment, including industry wise federations and national level federations.
Collective bargaining agent	The trade union of workmen certified to represent the workmen of an establishment, group of establishments or industry in collective bargaining with the employer.
Strike	Cessation of work by a body of persons employed in an establishment, acting in combination, or a concerted refusal to continue to work or to accept employment.
Lock out	The closing of a place of employment, suspension of work, or refusal by an employer to continue to employ workmen, in connection with an industrial dispute or to compel acceptance of terms of employment.
Illegal strike or lock out	A strike or lock out declared, commenced or continued otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance.
Settlement	A settlement arrived at in conciliation proceedings, or a written agreement between an employer and the collective bargaining agent or workmen, signed by the parties and sent to the government and the Conciliator as prescribed.
Award	The determination of an industrial dispute by a Labour Court, an Arbitrator, the Commission or a court of competent jurisdiction, including an interim award.
Public utility service	Any service listed in the Schedule, which includes hospitals, public conservancy and sanitation, firefighting services, postal, telegraph and telephone services, railways and airways, ports, and watch and ward and security services maintained in an establishment.

Chapter by Chapter Overview

Chapter	Title and sections	What it covers
I	Preliminary, sections 1 to 2	Short title, extent, application and all definitions.
II	Trade Unions, sections 3 to 22	Freedom of association, registration of trade unions, cancellation, appeals, federations, annual returns and determination of the collective bargaining agent.
III	Workers Participation and Dispute Resolution, sections 23 to 43	Shop Stewards, Joint Works Councils, negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, strikes and lock outs, and protection of conditions of service during proceedings.
IV	Labour Courts, sections 44 to 48	Establishment and powers of Labour Courts, redress of individual grievances, awards and appeals.
V	National Industrial Relations Commission, sections 49 to 56	Constitution, functions and powers of the Commission for industry wise unions, national federations and disputes of national importance.
VI	Authorities, sections 57 to 58	Appointment, powers and functions of the Registrar of Trade Unions.
VII	Decisions, Settlements and Awards, sections 59 to 62	Who is bound by a settlement or award, and how long it stays in operation.
VIII	Penalties and Procedures, sections 63 to 74	Unfair labour practices by employers and by workmen, and penalties for offences under the Ordinance.
IX	Miscellaneous, sections 75 to 82	Confidentiality, limitation, rule making power, repeal of the 1969 Ordinance and removal of difficulties.

Trade Union Registration: Step by Step

Chapter II is the part most readers search for. Section 3 protects the right of workmen and employers to form and join associations, subject to Article 17 of the Constitution and the conditions in the Ordinance. A workman may not be a member of more than one trade union at the same time, and unions may join federations and confederations.

1. Form the union and adopt a constitution. The constitution must state the name and objects of the union, the purposes for which its general funds can be used, the conditions of membership and office, the maintenance of a member list, the safe custody and annual audit of funds, and the manner in which the constitution can be amended.
2. Apply to the Registrar. The application is signed by the President and the Secretary of the union and is sent with copies of the constitution, the resolution of the general body, particulars of the establishment or industry and a statement of total membership.
3. Registrar examines the application. If the union has complied with all requirements, the Registrar registers the union in the prescribed register and issues a registration certificate in the prescribed form.
4. Maintain registers and file returns. Every registered trade union must maintain the prescribed registers, send an annual general statement of accounts to the Registrar, and report every alteration of its constitution.
5. Cancellation and appeal. Registration can be cancelled on the grounds listed in section 12, for example where a certificate was obtained by fraud or misrepresentation, where the union has ceased to exist, or where it has failed to get a collective bargaining agent determined as required. A union aggrieved by cancellation can appeal as provided in section 13.
6. Incorporation. Under section 14, every registered trade union is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to hold property and to sue and be sued in its registered name.

How the Collective Bargaining Agent Is Determined

The collective bargaining agent, or CBA, is the single union that speaks for all workmen of an establishment in bargaining with the employer. It can raise an industrial dispute, serve a notice of conciliation, and give notice of and declare a strike in accordance with the Ordinance.

• Where only one registered trade union exists in an establishment and it applies with the required membership support, the Registrar certifies it as the collective bargaining agent.
• Where more than one registered trade union exists, the Registrar holds a secret ballot among the workmen to determine which union shall be the collective bargaining agent.
• The Registrar verifies the membership lists, prepares the voter list, fixes the date of the poll and sends notice to each contesting union before the poll.
• If no union secures the required majority of votes in the first poll, a second poll is held between the leading unions, and the union that secures a majority of the votes cast in the second poll is certified.
• Once a union is certified, a fresh application for determination cannot be moved for the period prescribed by the Ordinance, so that bargaining is not disturbed again and again.

The employer must deduct union subscription from the wages of member workmen where the workman has authorised it, and remit it to the funds of the trade union.

Workers Participation: Shop Stewards and Joint Works Councils

Chapter III starts with participation inside the workplace, before any dispute begins. In every establishment where fifty or more workmen are employed, a Shop Steward is chosen from among the workmen of each shop, section or department. The Shop Steward acts as a link between the workers and the employer and assists in improving discipline, safety, welfare and productivity, and in removing grievances.

An establishment that employs fifty persons or more also sets up a Joint Works Council made up of representatives of the employer and of the collective bargaining agent, not more than ten members in total. The Council deals with matters such as improvement of production and productivity, training, welfare, safety and health, and the encouragement of thrift and savings among workers, and it meets at the intervals prescribed.

How an Industrial Dispute Is Resolved

The Ordinance builds a ladder. A dispute should climb one step at a time, and a strike is the last step, not the first.

1. Negotiation. Under section 25, where a difference or dispute arises, the employer or the collective bargaining agent raises it in writing and the parties try to settle it through bilateral negotiation.
2. Notice of conciliation. If negotiation fails, a party serves a notice of conciliation on the other party and on the Conciliator, and the period of the notice runs as provided in section 27.
3. Conciliation. The Conciliator, a person appointed by the Provincial Government under section 26, or the Board of Conciliators, calls the parties, investigates the dispute and tries to bring about a settlement. Any settlement reached is recorded in writing.
4. Arbitration. If conciliation fails, the Conciliator tries to persuade the parties to agree to refer the dispute to an Arbitrator. The Arbitrator gives the award within thirty days of the reference, and a copy is sent to the parties and to the Labour Court.
5. Strike or lock out. If no settlement is arrived at during conciliation, the workmen may go on strike or the employer may declare a lock out on the expiry of the notice period or on a declaration that conciliation has failed, whichever is earlier, as allowed by section 31. Special rules apply to public utility services under section 32, where the government can prohibit a strike or lock out and refer the dispute for decision.
6. Labour Court. A collective bargaining agent or an employer may apply to the Labour Court for adjudication of the dispute. The Court can also prohibit the continuance of a strike or lock out, and a strike or lock out that breaks the rules in sections 36 to 38 is illegal, with the procedure in section 39 to have it called off or lifted.

Two protections run through this ladder. No party may go on strike or declare a lock out while conciliation, arbitration or Labour Court proceedings on the dispute are pending, and an employer may not alter the conditions of service of workmen, or dismiss or punish a workman, in connection with a pending dispute except as allowed by section 40.

Labour Courts and Individual Grievances

Under section 44, a Provincial Government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the respective High Court, establishes as many Labour Courts as it considers necessary and defines the area, industry or classes of cases for each Court. A Labour Court consists of a Presiding Officer who has been, or is qualified to be, a Judge or Additional Judge of a High Court, or is a District Judge.

The Labour Court adjudicates and determines industrial disputes referred to it, tries offences under the Ordinance, and can grant relief and interim relief. Under section 46, an individual worker can also bring a grievance about a right guaranteed or secured by law, an award or a settlement directly in the manner prescribed, without waiting for a union dispute. An award or decision of the Labour Court is published and becomes enforceable as provided in section 47, and appeals lie as provided in section 48.

National Industrial Relations Commission

Section 49 requires the Federal Government to constitute the National Industrial Relations Commission with not more than eight members including its Chairman. The Commission adjudicates disputes to which an industry wise trade union or a federation is a party and disputes of national importance referred by the Federal Government. It registers industry wise trade unions, federations of such unions and federations at the national level, determines collective bargaining agents among them, and tries the offences assigned to it. Appeals from the Commission lie to the High Court as provided in section 52.

Unfair Labour Practices

On the part of employers, section 63

• Imposing a condition in a contract of employment that restricts the right of a person to join a trade union or continue membership of a trade union.
• Refusing to employ, or refusing to continue to employ, a person because that person is or is not a member or office bearer of a trade union.
• Threatening, dismissing, discharging or punishing a workman for joining a union, taking part in union activity or giving evidence in proceedings.
• Interfering with the formation or administration of a trade union, or supporting one union against another in an improper manner.
• Refusing to bargain collectively in good faith with the collective bargaining agent, or failing to implement a settlement or award.

On the part of workmen and trade unions, section 64

• Forcing or attempting to force an employer to accept a union demand through an illegal strike, a go slow or other unlawful pressure.
• Intimidating a workman to join or not join a trade union, or to take part or not take part in a strike.
• Obstructing normal work, damaging property of the establishment, or preventing an officer of the Registrar, a Conciliator or a Court from performing a duty.
• Failing to implement a settlement or award that binds the union or the workmen.

Section 65 and the sections that follow set penalties for unfair labour practices, breach of a settlement, failure to implement a settlement or award, false statements, and other offences under the Ordinance, including offences by companies and corporations. Always read the exact penalty in the PDF, because the amount and the forum depend on the section charged.

Current Status: Read This Before You Rely on IRO 2002

This page publishes the 2002 Ordinance as a historical and study text, and the PDF above is the authentic Gazette version. Labour law in Pakistan has moved since 2002. After the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 2010, labour became mainly a provincial subject. The provinces enacted their own industrial relations laws, and at the federal level the Industrial Relations Act, 2012 now covers the Islamabad Capital Territory and trans provincial establishments and trade unions. In practice, which law applies to your factory, office or union depends on where the establishment is located and whether it works in one province or across provinces.

Use this guide to understand the concepts, the vocabulary and the structure that all of these later laws have inherited from the 1969 and 2002 Ordinances. For a live dispute, a registration or a court case, check the current provincial or federal law that applies to you and take advice from a qualified labour lawyer. Nothing on this page is legal advice.

Who Should Read the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002?

• LLB and CSS or PMS students who need the structure, definitions and chapter scheme for labour law papers.
• Trade union leaders and office bearers who need registration, CBA elections and strike rules in one place.
• HR managers and employers who need to handle grievances, negotiations and conciliation notices correctly.
• Lawyers and researchers who need the original Gazette text for citation and comparison with later provincial and federal laws.

For other guides and resources published on this site, see our blog. If you find an error in this guide or need a document added, reach us through the contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 in Pakistan?

It is Ordinance No. XCI of 2002, published on 26 October 2002, which consolidated the law on trade unions, relations between employers and workmen, and the settlement of industrial disputes in Pakistan. It replaced the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969.

How many sections and chapters are in the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002?

The Ordinance has 82 sections arranged in 9 chapters, plus a Schedule that lists public utility services. Chapter II covers trade unions, Chapter III covers workers participation and dispute resolution, Chapter IV covers Labour Courts and Chapter VIII covers unfair labour practices and penalties.

How is a trade union registered under IRO 2002?

The union adopts a constitution that meets section 6, then its President and Secretary apply to the Registrar of Trade Unions with copies of the constitution and the required particulars. If all requirements are met, the Registrar registers the union and issues a registration certificate, after which the union must file annual returns and report changes to its constitution.

What is a collective bargaining agent?

It is the registered trade union certified to represent all workmen of an establishment, group of establishments or industry in collective bargaining with the employer. Where more than one union claims the role, the Registrar decides it through a secret ballot of the workmen.

When is a strike illegal under the Ordinance?

A strike is illegal if it is declared, commenced or continued without the notice of conciliation required by the Ordinance, while conciliation, arbitration or court proceedings on the dispute are pending, or in a public utility service after the government has prohibited it and referred the dispute for decision. Sections 36 to 39 contain the full rules and the procedure for having an illegal strike called off.

Where can I download the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 PDF?

On this page. Use the download link in the PDF box near the top of this article to get the complete Gazette text in PDF form, free to read, print and cite.

Is the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 still applicable today?

It is the direct predecessor of the current laws and remains essential for study and for understanding older cases and settlements. Since 2010 labour has been mainly a provincial subject, and the Industrial Relations Act, 2012 applies at the federal level for the Islamabad Capital Territory and trans provincial matters, while each province has its own industrial relations law. Check the law of your province before acting on a live matter.

Conclusion

The Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 gave Pakistan a single, structured answer to three questions: how workers organise, who speaks for them, and how their disputes with employers are settled without chaos. Learn its definitions, follow its ladder from negotiation to conciliation to the Labour Court, and keep the full PDF from this page with you whenever you study, negotiate or litigate on industrial relations.

Download the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 PDF and share this guide with anyone who needs the law in plain language.