Management of Strike and Lockouts
Industrial Relations Notes B.Com 5th Sem CBCS Pattern
Strike and Lockout
Strike: A strike is a
very powerful weapon used by trade unions and other labor associations to get
their demands accepted. It generally involves quitting of work by a group of
workers for the purpose of bringing the pressure on their employer so that
their demands get accepted. When workers collectively cease to work in a
particular industry, they are said to be on strike.
According to Industrial Disputes Act
1947, a strike is “a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in an
industry acting in combination; or a concerted refusal of any number of persons
who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment;
or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of such persons to
continue to work or to accept employment”. This definition throws light on a
few aspects of a strike. Firstly, a strike is a referred to as stoppage of work
by a group of workers employed in a particular industry. Secondly, it also
includes the refusal of a number of employees to continue work under their
employer.
Essential features of Strikes:
1)
There must be cessation of work.
2)
The cessation of work must be by a body of
persons employed in any industry (which can be called industry as per Sec. 2
(j).
3)
The stricken must have been acting in
combination.
4)
There must be a concerted refusal under a
common understanding of any no. of persons who are or have been so employed to
continue to work or to accept employment.
5)
There must stop work for some demands relating
to employment, non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of
labour of the workmen.
Lockout: A lockout is a
work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. It is
declared by employers to put pressure on their workers. This is different from
a strike, in which employees refuse to work. Thus, a lockout is employers’
weapon while a strike is raised on part of employees. Acc to Industrial
Disputes Act 1947, lock-out means the temporary closing of a place of
employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to continue
to employ any number of persons employed by him.
A lockout may happen for several
reasons. When only part of a trade union votes to strike, the purpose of a
lockout is to put pressure on a union by reducing the number of members who are
able to work.
ILLEGAL STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS (Sec 24)
(1)
A strike or a lock-out shall be illegal if:
(i)
It is commenced or declared in contravention of section 22 or section 23; or
(ii)
It is continued in contravention of an order made under sub-section (3) of
section 10 or sub-section (4A) of section 10A.
(2)
Where a strike or lock-out in pursuance of an industrial dispute has already
commenced and is in existence at the time of the reference of the
dispute to a Board, an arbitrator, a Labour Court, Tribunal or
National Tribunal, the continuance of such strike or lock-out shall not be
deemed to be illegal, provided that such strike or lock-out was not
at its commencement in contravention of the provisions of this
Act or the continuance thereof was not prohibited under sub-section (3) of
section 10 or subsection (4A) of section 10A.
(3)
A lock-out declared in consequence of an illegal strike or a strike declared in
consequence of an illegal lock-out shall not be deemed to be illegal.
Prohibition of Strike and lockout
Section 22: Prohibition of Strikes and Lock outs:
1. No person employed in a public utility service shall go on strike,
(a) without giving to the employer notice of strike within six weeks before
striking or (b) within fourteen days of giving such notice or (c) before the
expiry of the date of strike specified in any such notice as aforesaid or (d)
during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation
officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings.
2. No employer carrying on any public utility service shall lock-out
any of his workman (a) without giving them notice of lock-out within six weeks
before locking-out; or (b) within fourteen days of giving such notice; or (c)
before the expiry of the date of lock-out specified in any such notice as
aforesaid; or (d) during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a
conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings.
3. The notice
of lock-out or strike under this section shall not be necessary where there is
already in existence a strike or, as the case may be, lock-out in the public
utility service, but the employer shall send intimation of such lock-out or
strike on the day on which it is declared, to such Authority as may be
specified by the appropriate Government either generally or for a particular
area or for a particular class of public utility services.
4. The notice of strike referred to in
sub-section (1) shall be given by such number of persons to such person or
persons and in such manner as may be prescribed.
5. The notice
of lock-out referred to in sub-section (2) shall be given in such manner as may
be prescribed.
If on any day an employer receives from any person employed by him
any such notices as are referred to in sub-section (1) or gives to any persons
employed by him any such notices as are referred to in sub-section (2), he
shall within five days, thereof report to the appropriate Government or to such
authority as that Government may prescribe the number of such notices received
or given on that day.
Section 23: General Prohibition of Strikes and Lock-outs:
No workman who is employed in any industrial
establishment shall go on strike and no employer of any such workman shall
declare a lock-out
1.
during the
pendency of conciliation proceedings before a Board and seven days after the
conclusion of such proceedings;
2.
during the
pendency of proceedings before a Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal
and two months after the conclusion of such proceedings
3.
during any period
in which a settlement is in operation,
Difference between Strike and Lockout
1.
Definition: A strike is a refusal to work, organised by a body of employees as
a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain a concession or concessions
from their employer. A lockout is the exclusion of employees by their employer
from their place of work until certain terms are agreed to.
2.
Initiators: Strikes are initiated by the employees. Lockouts are
initiated by the employers.
3.
Aim: Strikes are conducted with the aim of gaining concessions from the
employer. Lockouts are used to enforce terms of employment upon a group of
employees during a dispute.
4.
Methods: Strikes may involve employees refusing to attend work, employees
standing outside the workplace as a form of protest (picket) or employees
occupying the workplace but refusing to work (sit down strike).
Lockouts involve refusing to admit workers onto company premises.
Kinds of strike
These are three
kinds of strikes, namely: (1) General strike, (2) Stay-in-strike, and (3) Go slow strike.
(1) General strike: A general strike is
one, where the workmen join together for
common cause and stay away from work, depriving the employer of their labour
needed to run the factory.
(2) Stay-in-strike: A stay-in-strike is
also known as "total-dawn-strike" or 'pen-dawn-strike". It is
the form of strike where the workmen report to their duties, occupy the
premises, but do not work. The employer is thus prevented from employing other
labour to carryon his business.
(3) Go-slow strike: In a 'Go
Slow' strike, the .workmen do not stay away from work, they do come to their
work and work also, but with a slow speed in order to lower down production,
and thereby cause loss to the employer.
In addition to
these three forms of strike a few more may be cited, although some of them are
not strike within the meaning of Sub-Section 2(q). Such forms are:
(i) Sympathetic strike: A
sympathetic strike is resorted to in sympathy of other striking workmen. Its
aim is to encourage or to extend moral support to or indirectly to aid the
striking workmen. The sympathisers resorting to such strike have no demand of
grievance of their own.
(ii) Hunger strike: In
hunger strike, a group of workmen resort to fasting on or near the place of
work or the residence of the employer with a view to coerce the employer to
accept their demands.
(iii) Work to rule: The
employers in this case of "work to rule" strictly adhere to rules
while performing their duties which ordinarily they do not observe. This causes
the slowing down the tempo of work. It is not a strike because there is no
stoppage of work at all.
(iv)
Unjustified Strike: It is to be noted that a strike may be
perfectly legal and yet be unjustified; for example; a strike commenced not to
secure improvement on matters of basic industrial interest to labour, but to
embarrass the management could not be justified. Thus, a strike may be held
unjustified for various reasons, they are:
1.
The demands may be pitched unreasonably high
on workman.
2.
The workmen may have adopted a strike for any
political reasons and not for any trade union objects; or
3.
The demands were not made bonafide but with
other extraneous methods, i.e. for the specific purpose of embarrassing the
employer.
The
justifiability of a strike would depend upon several factors such as:-
a)
Were the demands of the workmen genuine or
were reasonable or inspired by an oblique motive;
b)
Were the demands fair and reasonable;
c)
Whether the workers try a less dynastic method
before going on a strike, etc.
An unjustified strike may not necessarily be illegal. Section 24
provides that a strike in contravention of Section 22 & 23 is illegal. A
Strike is justified if it has been raised for a good cause and carried in a
peaceful manner.
👉👉Industrial Relations Notes
Industrial Conflict Meaning
Industrial conflict occurs when employees express their
dissatisfaction with management over the current state of the
management-employee relationship. The causes of such dissatisfaction are
typically matters related to regular wage payment, wage increase or
remunerations according to terms of the employment contract. Employees can
express such dissatisfaction in formal or informal ways. Formal methods are
organized and are planned in advance, while informal ones are spontaneous and
unorganized, usually taking management by surprise.
There are different types of formal and informal industrial
conflicts.
a) Strike: A
strike is a very powerful weapon used by trade unions and other labor
associations to get their demands accepted. It generally involves quitting of
work by a group of workers for the purpose of bringing the pressure on their
employer so that their demands get accepted. When workers collectively cease to
work in a particular industry, they are said to be on strike.
According to Industrial Disputes Act
1947, a strike is “a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in an
industry acting in combination; or a concerted refusal of any number of persons
who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment;
or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of such persons to
continue to work or to accept employment”. This definition throws light on a
few aspects of a strike. Firstly, a strike is a referred to as stoppage of work
by a group of workers employed in a particular industry. Secondly, it also
includes the refusal of a number of employees to continue work under their
employer.
b) Lockout: A lockout is a work stoppage in which an
employer prevents employees from working. It is declared by employers to put
pressure on their workers. This is different from a strike, in which employees
refuse to work. Thus, a lockout is employers’ weapon while a strike is raised
on part of employees. Acc to Industrial Disputes Act 1947, lock-out means the
temporary closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work or the
refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by
him.
A lockout may happen for several
reasons. When only part of a trade union votes to strike, the purpose of a
lockout is to put pressure on a union by reducing the number of members who are
able to work.
c)
Work-to-rule: Work-to-rule, another form of formal industrial action, occurs
when workers work strictly according to the legal terms of their contract. They
deliberately refuse to make use of their initiative and act rigidly, like
pre-programmed machines. For instance, a nurse may deliberately refuse to
answer phone calls that are meant for doctors (since her terms of contract do
not include phone-answering). A stenographer may ignore glaring grammatical
errors in what her boss dictates to her (since, strictly speaking, her
responsibility is merely to transcribe whatever her boss dictates to her).
Since work-to-rule does not go against any formal terms of contract, it rarely
brings punishment. However, it naturally slows down work progress.
d)
Absenteeism: Absenteeism, an informal form of industrial conflict, occurs when
employees deliberately refuse to report to their workplace. Absenteeism is not
always a sign of industrial conflict, since employees can fail to report to
work due to injury or illness, for instance. Thus industrial-conflict
absenteeism merely increases the loss of productivity and revenue that an
organization suffers due to failure of workers to report for duty due to
reasons of personal incapacity that they cannot help, such as illness.
e)
Sabotage: Sabotage, another form of informal industrial conflict, occurs when
employees deliberately damage their organization’s production or reputation.
This could take the form of slowing down production, temporarily disabling
machinery, direct destruction of organization’s property or slandering the
organization. Employers who engage in sabotage (saboteurs) usually hide their
individual identities, but do not shy away from identifying themselves as a
pressure group.
Causes of Industrial conflicts and disputes
1)
Wages and Allowances: The most important cause for disputes relates to wages.
The demand for
increase in wages and allowances is the most important cause of industrial
disputes. The
demand for wages and allowances has never been fully met because of
inflation and high cost of living. High inflation results in increased
cost of living resulting in never ending demands from unions. There are some more
economic reasons who are the cause of industrial disputes are bonus,
working conditions and working hours, modernization and automation and demand
for other
facilities.
2)
Union Rivalry: Most organizations have multiple unions. Multiplicity of unions
leads to interunion rivalries. If one union agrees to a wage
settlement, another union will oppose it.
3)
Political Interference: Major trade unions are affiliated to political parties.
Political affiliated is not peculiar to our country alone. Even a
cursory assessment of labour movements around the world would show that trade
unions are, by their very nature, political and that politicization of the rule
rather than the exception. Everywhere trade union have been compelled to engage
in political
action to obtain enough freedom from legal restraint to exercise
their main industrial functions.
4)
Managerial Causes: These causes include autocratic managerial attitude and
defective labour
policies. In this includes failures of recognize the trade union,
defective recruitment policies, irregular layoff and retrenchment, defiance of
agreements and codes, defective leadership, weak trade unions.
5)
Unfair labour Practices: The Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 is more specific
about the unfair
labour practices. According to the Act, the following constitute
unfair labour practices:
Ø
To interfere with, restrain from or coerce
workmen in the exercise of their right to organize, form, join or assist a
trade union or to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective
bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.
Ø
Threatening workmen with discharge if they
join a trade union
Ø
Threatening a lockout or closure, if a trade
union is organised
Ø
Granting wage increases to workmen at crucial
periods of the trade union organization, with a view to undermine the efforts
of the trade union at organization.
Ø
To, dominate, interfere with or contribute
support, financial or otherwise, to any trade union.
6)
To encourage or discourage membership in any trade union by discriminating
against workmen.
7)
To discharge or dismiss workmen.
8)
To indulge in acts of force or violence.
9)
To refuse to bargaining collectively, in good faith with the recognized trade
unions.
10)
To insist upon individuals workmen, who are on a legal strike, to sign a good
conduct bond as a precondition to allowing them to resume work?
Prevention of Industrial Conflicts
The
role of HR in these issues is crucial and have utmost importance. Human
resources personnel must try to maintain harmony and peace between employer and
employee. Certainly they can bridge the gap and provide significant guidance to
do that. Following preventive measures can be taken to maintain industrial
conflicts and problems.
1.
Appointment of Labor Welfare Officer: As mentioned above, employment working
conditions are the main reason of the conflicts. To check and monitor this
condition, appointment of labor welfare office is must. According to the
Factories Act, 1948, every factory wherein 500 or more workers are ordinarily
employed, at least 1 officer must be nominated, where the numbers of workers
are more than 2,500, the extra guidance and/ or additional welfare officers are
mandatory to nominate to provide assistance to the welfare office.
2.
Sound personnel policies: Policies should be formulated in consultation with
the workers and their representative if they effective implementation. It
should not be ambiguous. It should be uniform across the company to ensure fair
treatment of each worker.
3.
Effective grievance procedure: Efficient procedure to logged grievance is
another preventive measure. As grievances normally arise in day to day working
relations. HR managers can stop the emergence of industrial disputes by solving
the individual problems.
4.
Stable trade unions and collective bargaining: There should be recognition of
right of collective bargaining of the trade unions. In any organization, great
emphasis must be on mutual accommodation than conflict or unreasonable
behavior. Conflicting attitude does not lead to labor relations; it might
ignite the union volatile movement as they reacts by engaging in power tactics.
The “give and take” approach should be adopted rather than “take or leave”. On
the other hand, management should not blackmail the workers.
5.
Labor's partnership in management: Involvement of workers in the management
should be encouraged by making effective use of works committees, joint
sessions and other procedures. It leads to effective and efficient
communication between managers and workers thus improve productivity and increase
effectiveness.
Settlement of conflicts
After
the conflict arises, both parties should be settled that conflicts. Conflicts
can be settled by following methods:
1.
Investigation: Investigation is conducted by the board or committee or court
nominated by the government. Basically, it is a legally based process that has
a significant role to play in a number of situations. Industrial tribunals take
many forms; in Germany the labor courts make legally binding judgment; in the
UK tribunal decisions do not set a precedent in law and cannot establish
criminal behaviors (Price 2007). Any party can submit an application at one
time or both the parties at the same time to the dispute, such process called
voluntary investigation. If the government constitute a tribunal without the
consent of the parties to the matter then it would called compulsory. In such
case, the strikes and lock-outs are requited to be ceased and employers aren't
allowed to alter any term in the employment.
2.
Meditation: It is an intermediate between arbitration and conciliations. In the
UK, the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (ACAS) play a role in
relation to collective disputes. Mediators make advisory recommendations that
are highly aimed at preventing disputes from degenerating into industrial
action (Price 2007). Recommendation made by ACAS mediators are not binding on
the parties involved.
3.
Conciliation: Conciliation is just a platform which gathered both parties to
their differences and gives opportunity to develop their own proposed
solutions. It is a process by which representative of the workers and employers
are brought together before a third person (ACAS conciliator) or group of
persons (board of conciliators) with a aim to convince them to end deadlock by
mutual discussion. Conciliator offer advice and make recommendation to the
disputes.
4.
Arbitration: If the two parties involving in the issues fail to come to the
solution by themselves or with the help of ACAS conciliators or mediator, who
willing to submit the dispute to an impartial authority, whose judgment, they
are ready to accept is called voluntary arbitration. There are essential
elements in voluntary arbitration which are; (a) the voluntary submission of
dispute to arbitration; (b) the subsequent attendance of witness &
investigations and (c) the enforcement of an award may not be necessary.
While
if parties are required to accept arbitration without any willingness are
called compulsory arbitration. This situation arises when one party feels
aggrieved by an act of the other. It can also be arises when the country is
passing through a bad economic crisis and general public is greatly
dissatisfied with the existing industrial relations and when public vast
interest and the working condition have to be safeguarded and regulated by the
state.