Definition

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 or 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) public services 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 services, employment, or class, thereof, would prejudicially effect the public safety or the maintenance of the supplies or services essential to the life of the community, and which the State Government by notification in the official Gazette declares to be an essential services for the purpose 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 have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment, and includes : : (i) refusal to work overtime where such work is necessary for the maintenance of any essential service; (ii) any other conduct which is likely to result in or results in, cessation or substantial retardation of work in any essential service.