Industrial Dispute Act 1947 Strikes, Lockout
Industrial Dispute Act 1947 Strikes, Lockout: A strike is a strong tool that trade unions, other groups, or employees use to communicate their demands or complaints to employers or industry management. In another sense, it is a labour stoppage brought about by a widespread failure to respond to complaints. Workers exert pressure on employers by refusing to work until their demands are met. Strikes may be beneficial to employees or detrimental to the country’s economy.
Strikes are defined as “a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry acting in concert, 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” under section 2 (q) of the industrial dispute act.
Strikes are often called for for a variety of reasons.
Strikes are common in sectors as a result of disagreements between workers and employers, employees and employees, or employers and employers, and are mostly caused by the following issues:
- hours of work
- Working Environment
- Salary, incentives, and so on
- Wage payments are made on time.
- Salary/wages reduction
- Minimum wages are an issue.
- Leave/Holidays
- Disagreement with the company’s policy
- PF, ESI, Profit Sharing, and so forth.
- Retrenchment of employees and closure of the business
- Any additional problem.
Strikes may be regarded unlawful in the following situations, as described in section 22, on these grounds:
- Without providing the employer at least six weeks’ notice of the strike.
- Within fourteen days after the notification being given.
- Before the strike date mentioned in any such notification as aforesaid expires.
- During the pendency of any conciliation procedures before a conciliation officer, and for seven days after they are completed.
Furthermore, the requirements of section 23 are broad in scope. It places basic limits on announcing a strike in violation of a contract in both public and private utility services in the following situations:
During the pendency of conciliation procedures before a board and for a period of seven days after their completion;
During the pendency of proceedings before a Labour Court, Tribunal, or National Tribunal, and for a period of two months following the completion of such procedures;
When a notice has been made under paragraph 3 (a) of section 10 A during the pendency of the arbitration and 2 months after the arbitrator’s conclusion;
During the time that a settlement or award is in effect for any of the matters covered by the settlement or award.
Industrial Dispute Act 1947 Strikes, Lockout
Primary Strikes: Primary Strikes are those that are directed directly against the employer. The following are examples of primary strikes that workers use to pressure their employers to accede to their conditions.
Manufacturing workers use Gherao to compel management to adhere to their demands by blocking access to office or factory premises, preventing anybody from entering or exiting.
Picketing is the practise of emphasising their grievances on a playcard or banner in order to demonstrate their demand to the general public and the media. Members of this union are meeting to discuss a peaceful solution to the problem.
Boycotting is a method in which no worker is permitted to perform any job and union members pressure other employees to join their strike by refusing to work.
Workmen show up for work on a regular basis but do not perform any work and remain idle for the whole office hours.
A Go Slow Strike is a particularly dangerous kind of strike in which workers deliberately labour slowly in order to slow down operations. When an order has a rigorous delivery deadline, this is detrimental to the employer.
Workmen’s hunger strike is the most prevalent and oldest means of expressing their demands, in which they fast indefinitely and sit around the plant or employer’s home.
Secondary Strikes: The sympathy strike is another term for a secondary strike. In this case, force is used against a third party who has good commercial links with the organisation in order to cause a loss to the employer and the company. In a strike like this, the third individual has no other function to perform.
Nowadays, third-type strikes have grown widespread, which are used by the general public to express their dissatisfaction with government policies and demand that they be reversed. Recently, there has been indignation over the Farmer’s Bill, with actions such as the Bharat Bandh and No Purchase at Government Mandis being taken in several states.
Consequences of a Prohibited Strike
Economic Consequences: Strike losses are massive and catastrophic, and in rare situations, they may even lead to the industry’s collapse. The employer may suffer significant financial losses as a result of the strike. Strikes cause production to halt and sales to drop, allowing competing firms to seize market share. As a result, the industry loses its customers and their faith, and strikes have a negative impact on the company’s market goodwill.
Both parties, i.e., the employer and the employee, are at a loss; for the employer, the immediate losses include capital loss, loss of profits, delays in orders, and loss of goodwill, as well as the possibility of incurring insurance or strike-breaking costs; for the employee, the immediate losses include wage loss, debt contracting, and all personal hardships that may be involved.
Economically, the damages sustained by a strike are difficult to assess. Strikes may have a negative impact on an economy, causing foreign investment to become unstable. Furthermore, the negative consequences on international commerce include stifling economic progress and increasing economic uncertainty, particularly when information, photographs, and videos of violence, property destruction, and brutal battles between strikers and security continue to circulate in the worldwide media.
Social Implications: The strike has major social consequences, which mostly impact workers; since they are the ones who lose their salaries, they are more likely to lose their employment. Wages and job losses have a direct impact on people’s consumption and spending, and subsequent strikes in critical utility services have an impact on the three pillars of any industry: suppliers, manufacturers (both employers and workers), and consumers.
The employer’s aggressive attitude toward their employees resulted in the dismissal of workers.
Legal ramifications: The legitimacy of a strike may be determined by the strike’s article, or cause, its preparation, or the strikers’ direction. The nature of a strike’s article or items, as well as whether or not the goods are legal, are not always easy to determine. The employer-employee relationship is not dissolved by a strike, whether legal or illegal, justified or unjustified.
Participating in an unlawful strike is usually considered misbehaviour on the part of a worker, and they are subject to dismissal as a result. Whether an employer is free to terminate employees in such circumstances has been the topic of a regular domestic investigation to assess the nature of the wrongdoing and the severity of the penalty by determining whether the strikers were peaceful or aggressive. If a worker is found guilty of the accusations, he or she may only be terminated after complying with certain obligations.
Lockouts
Employers’ sole tactic against workers to get them to agree to their new rules and procedures is to use this strategy. In a lockout, the employer temporarily shutters the workplace, suspends employees, or takes other actions to compel them to comply with the new terms and conditions.