Definitions.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires— (a) "essential service" means— (i) any transport service for the carriage of passengers or goods, by land of water with respect to which the State Legislature has power to make laws ; (ii) any service connected with the supply of water, electricity or any other essential commodity ; (iii) any service connected with the maintenance of public health and sanitation, including hospitals and dispensaries ; (iv) any public service and posts in connection with the affairs of the State ; and also persons appointed to the secretariat staff of the State Legislative Assembly ; (v) Any other service or employment or class thereof, connected with matters with respect to which the State Legislature has power to make laws and which the State Government is of opinion that strikes in such service, employment, or class thereof, would prejudicially affect the maintenance of any public utility service, public safety or the maintenance of supplies (including air supplies) or services essential to the life of the community or would result in the infliction of grave hardship on the community, and which the State Government by notification in the official Gazette declare to be an essential service for the purposes of this Act ; (b) "strike" means the cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any essential service acting in combination or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons who are or who have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment, and includes— (i) failure to attend at, or absence from, the place of work on any working day or during any working hours, without obtaining the necessary permission therefore of the authority competent to grant such permission ; (ii) refusal to work overtime where such work is necessary for the maintenance of any essential service ; (iii) any other conduct which is likely to result in, or results in, cessation or substantial retardation or work in any essential service.