PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title.
1. This Act may be cited as the Trade Unions Act.

Interpretation.
2. In this Act —

"delegate" means —

(a) in relation to a trade union which is not a federation, a person who is elected or appointed in accordance with the rules of the trade union to attend and vote at a meeting of the trade union on behalf of any number of members of the trade union; or

(b) in relation to a federation, a person elected or appointed in accordance with the rules of the federation to attend and vote at a meeting of the federation on behalf of any of the constituent trade unions of the federation;

"employer" includes the Government in respect of such employees or of such categories, classes or descriptions of such employees as from time to time are declared by the President by notification in the Gazette to be deemed to be workmen for the purposes of this Act;

"executive" means the body, by whatever name called, to which the management of the affairs of a trade union or of any branch thereof is entrusted;

"federation" means a federation of 2 or more trade unions;

"lock-out" means the closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him in consequence of a dispute, done with a view to compelling those persons, or to aid another employer in compelling persons employed by him, to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

"officer" , when used with reference to a trade union, includes any member of the executive thereof and any member of any committee, provision for which is made in the rules of the trade union, but does not include an auditor;

"register" means the register of trade unions maintained by the Registrar under section 7;

"registered office" means the office of a trade union which is registered under this Act as the head office of the trade union;

"registered trade union" means a trade union registered under this Act;

"Registrar" means the person for the time being appointed by the Minister under section 3 by name or by office to be or to act as Registrar of Trade Unions, and includes any person appointed by the Minister under section 4 to be or to act as an Assistant Registrar of Trade Unions;

"requisite consent" —

(a) in relation to a trade union which is not a federation, means the consent, obtained by secret ballot, of —

(i) the majority of the members of the trade union voting on their own behalf on the matter for which consent is sought; or

(ii) where the rules of the trade union allow or require a decision on that matter to be taken by means of voting by delegates and the decision is taken using that means, two-thirds of the total number of delegates representing the members; or

(b) in relation to a federation, means the consent, obtained by secret ballot, of two-thirds of the total number of delegates representing the constituent trade unions of the federation;

"strike" means the cessation of work by a body of workmen employed in any trade, industry or calling acting in combination, or a concerted refusal, or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of workmen who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment;

"trade dispute" means any dispute between employers and workmen or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and employers which is connected with the employment or non-employment, or the terms of employment or the conditions of work, of any person;

"trade union" means any association or combination of workmen or employers, whether temporary or permanent, whose principal object is to regulate relations between workmen and employers for all or any of the following purposes:

(a) to promote good industrial relations between workmen and employers;

(b) to improve the working conditions of workmen or enhance their economic and social status; or

(c) to achieve the raising of productivity for the benefit of workmen, employers and the economy of Singapore,

and includes any federation;

"workman" means any person who has entered into or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer, whether the contract is for manual labour, clerical work or otherwise, is express or implied, oral or in writing.

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