How Online Voting Can Revolutionize Trade Union Election Trade unions or employee associations are associations of employees of a particular trade. These are organizations with a democratically elected management committee that represents all employees in negotiations with employers and help employees as well as employers to maintain a balanced relationship between them. The unions have gained ground due to the rapid industrial development. The workers around the world have come together to create employee associations in their respective organizations that would give them a proper ground to fight for better wages and working conditions.
The History of Trade Unions in India: The industrial workforce in India began in the second half of the Nineteenth century after multiple clothing and textile mills were established in the port cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Bombay Mill-Hands Association, founded by the father of the Indian Trade Union Movement, N.M. Lokhande in 1890 is presumably the first Indian workers association. The first registered and organized Trade Union in India is considered to be the Madras Labour Union in 1918, founded by B.P. Wadia.
Union Election and its Problems: Every five years, Trade unions hold elections by ballots to fill certain governing positions. Following the respective rules, any member of the union can stand for any respective statutory position, depending on his eligibility. The trade union elections are generally held by booth-based paper ballot and/or postal ballot. In the case of postal ballots, the trade union sends the voting papers inside a pre-paid envelope to the voters in their respective homes together with small statements written by the candidates. The voters send back the papers to an unbiased independent person, appointed by the trade union, who would count the votes accurately. The major problem faced by the employee association is the amount of corruption that happens around these elections. As the entire process is time-consuming and humandependent, it’s quite easy to plant the seeds of corruption inside without getting caught or noticed. Apart from that, the paper-ballot voting is extremely expensive, as reams of paper need to be printed and send to the respective voters. It not only costs a lot of money but also takes a lot of time to conclude the entire process. As the entire process is humandependent, small human errors are inevitable too.