The Trade Unions Act, 1926

What it does

The Act is a repealed instrument, and the page is written as such. It provided a scheme for the registration of trade unions of workers and associations of employers, and it gave a registered union a corporate character, with the capacity to hold property and to sue and be sued in its own name. It protected the office bearers and members of a registered union from criminal liability for a lawful agreement to further the objects of the union, and from civil suit for certain acts done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute. It also regulated the funds a union might spend, the rules a union must have, and the returns it must file.

Who it binds

Registered trade unions and the persons who run them, and the workers and employers who formed or joined them. It bound the Registrar of Trade Unions, who registered a union, kept its records and could cancel the registration on the grounds the Act named. An employer was affected through its dealings with a registered union and through the immunities the Act gave to those who acted in a trade dispute.

What moved out of it

The subject has moved into the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, which repealed the Trade Unions Act, 1926 along with the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Code came into force on 21 November 2025. A union registered under the 1926 Act, and a proceeding begun under it, are dealt with as the repeal and savings provision of the Code provides, and the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act, 2026 keeps the Tribunals and statutory authorities under the repealed Acts working until their counterparts under the Code become functional.

What has changed, and when

The Act dates from 1926. It was amended over the years, and was displaced on 21 November 2025 by the Code, which was brought into force by notification S.O. 5320(E). The Central Government then made the Industrial Relations (Central) Rules, 2026 by notification G.S.R. 342(E) of 8 May 2026.

What turns on it in practice

The employment practice area encounters the 1926 Act in the history of a union and in disputes that began under it. The questions are of continuity. Whether a union registered under the old Act is registered under the Code, whether a recognition or an agreement made with it before 21 November 2025 survives, and which authority hears a dispute that arose before that date are answered by the Code's savings provision and by the forum rules the 2026 Amendment preserves.

For an employer, three working points follow. A settlement or agreement reached with a union before the changeover keeps its terms unless the Code or the agreement says otherwise. The register of recognised unions and the correspondence that supports it should be dated, so that the regime that applied on each date can be shown. And a dispute pending before a body under the older Acts should be tracked to the body that now hears it.

The advice in this area is mostly about dates and bodies. A matter's history under the older Act is part of its record, and the page does not describe the Code's own union provisions, which are dealt with in the Industrial Relations Code and its rules.