Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2017 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, GRS-A-TNS); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Which one of the following is not a trade union security measure?

(a)Closed shop system
(b)Agency shop system
(c)Open shop system
(d)Union shop system

Answer

Why

Correct — C, (c) Open shop system. The stem asks which of the four is not a trade union security measure, and the word not is printed in bold italic. Union security means an arrangement, usually written into the collective agreement, that protects a union's membership and its finances by tying employment in some way to union membership or to payment. In an open shop nothing is tied to anything: union membership is not a condition of getting the job, of keeping it, or of enjoying the terms the union has negotiated. It is the absence of union security rather than a form of it.

The problem these arrangements exist to solve is worth stating, because it makes the whole family intelligible. A union bargains for everybody in the bargaining unit, members and non-members alike, and the terms it wins are applied to all of them. A worker who stays out therefore gets the wage rise without paying the subscription or taking the risk — the free rider. Union security devices remove that possibility, and they are graded by how far they go.

The strongest is the closed shop: the employer may engage only persons who are already members of the union, and they must remain members to remain employed, so the union controls entry to the job itself. Next is the union shop: the employer may engage anybody, but the new employee must join the union within a stipulated period and remain a member thereafter. A preferential shop gives union members preference in hiring without excluding others. A maintenance-of-membership arrangement compels nobody to join, but requires a worker who is a member, or who becomes one, to keep his membership for the life of the agreement. Weakest is the agency shop: nobody need join, but a non-member must pay the union a fee equivalent to the dues, on the footing that he is being represented and should pay for it.

The open shop stands outside that ladder altogether, and historically it has been the employers’ position rather than the unions’. In the United States the closed shop was outlawed by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which also allowed individual States to pass right-to-work laws forbidding union-shop and agency-shop clauses — legislation that makes the open shop compulsory. In India none of these devices has any statutory basis: the Trade Unions Act, 1926 creates none of them, and the freedom to form associations guaranteed by Article 19(1)(c) has been understood to carry with it a freedom not to be compelled to join one.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Closed shop system — The closed shop is the strongest of the union security arrangements. Under it the employer undertakes to engage only workers who are already members of the union, and an employee who leaves the union or is expelled from it loses his employment with it. The union in effect controls access to the job, which is what makes the arrangement powerful and also what makes it contentious: it gives an organisation that is not the employer a decisive say over who may earn a living in the trade. It is unmistakably a union security measure, and the strongest one on this list.
(b)Agency shop system — The agency shop is the weakest of the arrangements on this list and it is the one candidates most often fail to recognise, because it does not require anybody to join anything. An employee may stay out of the union entirely; what he cannot do is stay out for free. He must pay the union a fee, generally equal to the subscription, in recognition of the fact that the union negotiates the terms on which he works and processes the grievances of everybody in the unit. It is a union security measure precisely because it secures the union's finances, which is one of the two things the family is designed to protect.
(d)Union shop system — The union shop sits one rung below the closed shop. The employer is free to engage whom he likes, including workers who have never belonged to the union, but a new employee must join within a stipulated period — commonly thirty days — and must remain a member to keep the job. The difference from the closed shop is the moment at which membership is required: before hiring in a closed shop, shortly after hiring in a union shop. Both are union security measures, and confusing the two is the commonest error in this topic, though it does not matter for this item because neither is the exception.

Concept

Union security arrangements protect two things: the union's membership and its funds. Ranked from the strongest to the weakest they run — closed shop, where only union members may be hired; union shop, where new hires must join within a stipulated period; preferential shop, where members are preferred in hiring; maintenance-of-membership shop, where existing members must keep their membership for the term of the agreement; and agency shop, where non-members must pay a fee equivalent to dues. The open shop is the absence of all of these. A related device is the check-off, under which the employer deducts union dues from wages and remits them to the union, with the employee's written authorisation; it secures the union's finances without touching the employment relationship at all, and in India it is also used as one of the methods of determining which union has majority support and should be recognised, the other being a secret ballot. The debate about union security is a debate about two competing goods: the effectiveness of collective representation, which is weakened by free riding, and the individual worker's freedom to associate or to abstain.

Union security is a small topic with a fixed vocabulary, and that is exactly what a multiple-choice paper wants: four terms of art, three of which belong to a set and one of which does not. The set is easy to hold once the free-rider problem behind it is understood, because each arrangement is a different answer to the same question — how much must a worker do for the union in order to hold the job. The open shop answers 'nothing', which is why it is the odd one out. Note the construction the Commission has used: all four options end in the same two words, so the eye finds nothing to seize on and the item is decided entirely by knowing what each first word means.

Key facts

Union security measures tie employment or payment to union membership, in order to protect a union's membership and its finances against free riding.
Closed shop: only persons who are already union members may be hired, and they must remain members.
Union shop: anyone may be hired, but the employee must join the union within a stipulated period and remain a member.
Preferential shop: union members are given preference in hiring.
Maintenance-of-membership shop: nobody is compelled to join, but a member must maintain membership for the term of the agreement.
Agency shop: a non-member need not join but must pay the union a fee equivalent to the dues.
Open shop: union membership is no condition of employment at all — the absence of union security.
The check-off is a related device by which the employer deducts union dues from wages with the worker's authorisation; in India it also serves, with the secret ballot, as a method of ascertaining a union's support for recognition.
In the United States the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 outlawed the closed shop and permitted States to enact right-to-work laws barring union-shop and agency-shop clauses.

A ladder graded by how much a worker must do for the union in order to hold the job

Closed shop — strongest→The employer may engage only persons who are already members of the union, and they must remain members to remain employed. The union in effect controls access to the job, which is what makes the arrangement powerful and also what makes it contentious.

Union shop→The employer is free to engage whom he likes, but a new employee must join the union within a stipulated period — commonly thirty days — and must remain a member to keep the job. The difference from the closed shop is the moment at which membership is required: before hiring in the one, shortly after hiring in the other.

Preferential and maintenance-of-membership→A preferential shop gives union members preference in hiring without excluding others. A maintenance-of-membership arrangement compels nobody to join, but requires a worker who is a member, or who becomes one, to keep that membership for the life of the agreement.

Agency shop — weakest→Nobody need join, but a non-member must pay the union a fee equivalent to the dues, on the footing that the union negotiates the terms on which he works. The one candidates most often fail to recognise, because it requires nobody to join anything — yet it secures the union's finances, which is one of the two things the family protects.

(c) Open shop — outside the ladder→Union membership is no condition of getting the job, of keeping it, or of enjoying the terms the union has negotiated. It is the absence of union security rather than a form of it, and historically it has been the employers’ position rather than the unions’.

The problem the family exists to solve→A union bargains for everybody in the bargaining unit and the terms it wins are applied to members and non-members alike, so a worker who stays out gets the wage rise without paying the subscription or taking the risk — the free rider. Each arrangement is a different answer to the same question, and the open shop answers 'nothing'.

Where they stand in law→In the United States the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 outlawed the closed shop and allowed individual States to pass right-to-work laws forbidding union-shop and agency-shop clauses. In India none of these devices has any statutory basis: the Trade Unions Act, 1926 creates none of them, and the freedom to form associations under Article 19(1)(c) has been understood to carry with it a freedom not to be compelled to join one.

Study next

Recognition of trade unions in India, the check-off and secret ballot methods, and the negotiating union under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020The Trade Unions Act, 1926 — registration, rights and immunities, and the general and political fundsUnfair labour practices listed in the Fifth Schedule to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947Collective bargaining agreements and their coverage of workers who are not union membersFreedom of association under Article 19(1)(c) and under ILO Conventions No. 87 and No. 98

Common traps

Reading past the bold-italic 'not'. Three of the four options are genuine measures and the ask is for the exception.
Failing to recognise the agency shop as a security measure because it compels nobody to join. It secures the union's funds instead.
Confusing the closed shop with the union shop. The difference is whether membership is required before hiring or shortly afterwards.
Assuming these arrangements exist in Indian law. None of them has a statutory basis here; they are features of collective agreements, chiefly in other countries.
Treating the open shop as a mild form of union security. It is the negation of the whole family.

Terminology sets are a staple of the EPFO labour block, and they are asked in three ways: which term does not belong to a named family, as here; which term describes a stated arrangement; and which is the strongest or weakest member of a graded set. All three are answered by learning the family as a ladder with the rationale at its foot, rather than as five isolated definitions. Neighbouring families worth preparing the same way are the forms of workers' participation, the types of unionism, and the machinery for the settlement of industrial disputes.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q76Open & attempt →

A union whose membership may cover workers employed in many industries, employment and crafts is known as

(a) industrial union
(b) general union
(c) craft union
(d) region-cum-industry level union

Answer(b) general union

The union-classification item a few questions earlier in this block; both are vocabulary questions about trade unions, one about how a union is composed and this one about how it protects itself.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Under which arrangement may an employer engage any worker he chooses, but the worker must join the union within a stipulated period and remain a member to keep the job?
- (a)Closed shop
- (b)Union shop
- (c)Agency shop
- (d)Open shop
Answer(b) Union shop
practice — not a real PYQ
An arrangement under which an employee need not join the union but must pay it a fee equivalent to the subscription is known as
- (a)the preferential shop
- (b)the maintenance-of-membership shop
- (c)the agency shop
- (d)the check-off
Answer(c) the agency shop

Why