EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 30 of 120

Correct — A, (a) Seven days. Section 7 of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 is headed 'Date of operation of standing orders' and it sets two different clocks depending on whether anyone appealed: • If no appeal is preferred under section 6, standing orders come into operation on the expiry of THIRTY days from the date on which authenticated copies of the certified standing orders are sent by the Certifying Officer under section 5(3). • Where an appeal IS preferred, they come into operation on the expiry of SEVEN days from the date on which copies of the order of the appellate authority are sent to the employer and to the trade union or other prescribed representatives of the workmen. The stem describes the second limb word for word — it names the appellate authority's order and the sending of copies to the employer and the trade unions — so the answer is seven days. The logic behind the shorter period is straightforward: after an appeal the parties have already had thirty days to challenge the Certifying Officer's decision and have used them, the appellate authority's decision is final, and there is nothing further to wait for. The thirty-day period in the first limb exists only to leave room for an appeal that has not yet been filed.

• (b)Ten days — Ten days is not a period the certification chain of this Act uses anywhere. The Act's timetable is built out of sevens, thirties and six-month periods, and this option is present only as filler between the two figures that are real.
• (c)Fifteen days — Like ten days, fifteen days appears nowhere in the certification and appeal machinery of the Act. It is the second filler option, and recognising that both (b) and (c) are absent from the statute reduces the question to a straight choice between seven and thirty.
• (d)Thirty days — This is the real trap, because thirty days is a genuine period under this Act — twice over. It is the period within which an appeal may be preferred under section 6, and it is the period after which standing orders come into operation in the OTHER limb of section 7, where no appeal has been preferred. A candidate who remembers 'thirty days' as the standing-orders number and does not notice that the stem specifically describes the post-appeal situation will mark this option.

The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 exists to end the arbitrariness of unwritten conditions of employment. It requires employers in covered industrial establishments to define with precision the conditions of service — classification of workmen, shift working, attendance, leave, suspension, termination, misconduct and the like — submit them for certification, and abide by them once certified. Section 1(3) applies the Act to every industrial establishment employing 100 or more workmen, with power in the appropriate Government to extend it to smaller establishments. Section 3 requires the employer to submit draft standing orders within six months of the Act becoming applicable; section 4 lays down the conditions for certification, including that the Certifying Officer may adjudicate on the fairness or reasonableness of the provisions; section 5 is the certification procedure, with the Certifying Officer sending authenticated copies within seven days of certification; section 6 allows an appeal within thirty days and makes the appellate authority's decision final; and section 7 fixes when the orders take effect.

This is a pure date-arithmetic item of the kind the EO/AO paper uses to separate candidates who have read the sections from those who have read a summary. The distinguishing feature is that the stem describes a specific branch of the section — the post-appeal branch — and the wrong answer is the number attached to the other branch. The habit rewarded is reading the stem for which situation it is in before reaching for the remembered number.

• Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, section 7 — standing orders come into operation on the expiry of thirty days from despatch of authenticated copies if no appeal is preferred, and on the expiry of seven days from despatch of copies of the appellate authority's order if an appeal is preferred.
• Section 1(3) — the Act applies to every industrial establishment employing 100 or more workmen; the appropriate Government may extend it to establishments with fewer.
• Section 3 — the employer must submit draft standing orders to the Certifying Officer within six months of the Act becoming applicable to the establishment.
• Section 4 — conditions for certification: provision for every matter in the Schedule, conformity with the Act, and adjudication on fairness or reasonableness.
• Section 5(3) — the Certifying Officer sends authenticated copies of the certified standing orders within seven days of certification.
• Section 6 — an appeal lies to the appellate authority within thirty days; its decision is final.
• Section 10 — standing orders, once certified, generally cannot be modified for six months except by agreement.
• Section 10A — subsistence allowance during suspension: 50% of wages for the first 90 days, 75% thereafter.

• Answering thirty days from memory. Thirty is the no-appeal period and the appeal period; seven is the post-appeal commencement period.
• Confusing section 5(3)'s seven days — the time for the Certifying Officer to send copies — with section 7's seven days, which is the time after which the orders take effect.
• Assuming standing orders operate from the date of certification. They operate from the expiry of the period in section 7, not from certification.
• Treating the appellate authority's order as itself appealable. Section 6 makes it final.

This Act is asked in EPFO EO/AO through its numbers — 100 workmen, six months, seven days, thirty days, ninety days, six months again — and through section 10A's subsistence allowance percentages. Prepare it as a timeline from submission of drafts to commencement, and every one of these items falls out of the timeline.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, an appeal against the order of the Certifying Officer must be preferred to the appellate authority within :

  • (a)Seven days
  • (b)Fifteen days
  • (c)Thirty days
  • (d)Sixty days

  Answer(c) Thirty days

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Where no appeal is preferred, certified standing orders come into operation on the expiry of how many days from the date on which authenticated copies are sent by the Certifying Officer ?

  • (a)Seven days
  • (b)Fifteen days
  • (c)Thirty days
  • (d)Ninety days

  Answer(c) Thirty days