Module 3

STRIKES AND
LOCKOUTS

PRESENTED BY :
NIKITA BEGUM TALUKDAR
Table of contents

01 STRIKES:
meaning &
03 Legal, illegal,
justified and
unjustifed strikes
concept

02 Legality 04 Lockout
 Introduction
Strikes and Lockouts are the weapons in the hands of workers
and employers.
Strikes is collective stoppage of work by workmen in order to
bring pressure upon the employers to fulfill their demands.
Lockout is a weapon of employer similar to strikes wherein the
employer shuts down his place of business as an instrument of
coercion or as a mode of exerting pressure upon workers with
a view to dictate his own terms to them.
 01
STRIKES: Meaning &
Concept
 Meaning:
S. 2 (q) of ID ACT,
“strike” means a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry acting in
combination or a concerned 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;

S. 2 (zk) Industrial relations Code 2020,

"strike" means a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry
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 the concerted casual leave
on a given day by fifty per cent. or more workers employed in an industry;
Essential Ingredients:
Cessation of work;

Cessation of work must by

the body of workers

Employed in an industry
(defined under the Code)

They must be acting in

combination

Must be concerted refusal to

work or Refusal under a
common understanding.
Cessation of work
• This is the most significant characteristic of concept of strike.
• It means stoppage of work or refusal to continue to work.
• There is no strike if there is no cessation of work.
• However duration immaterial.
• It may be for temporary period.
• A mere apprehension or threat of strike on some future date is not a
strike.
• Token strikes (for few hours or minutes is common nowadays. Leading case is
: Buckingham and Carnatic co. V. workers of Buckingham and Carnatic co. ltd.
Kinds of Strike
 KINDS OF STRIKE

General Strike Go Slow

Stay in Strike
Strike

Hunger Strike Lightning Work to Rule

Strike
1. GENERAL STRIKE:
• where workers join together for common cause and stay away from work.
• Token strike is a kind of general strike. It is for a day or few hours.
2. STAY IN STRIKE/ PEN DOWN STRIKE/SIT DOWN STRIKE OR TOOL DOWN
• Workmen report to their duties occupy premises but don't work. It falls under s. 2(q) of ID ACT.
• In Punjab National Bank Ltd. V. All India PNB Employees Federation (AIR 1960):
• One sabbarwal, typist and Secy. Of PNB Employees union applied for 7 days leave.
• Leave rejected by management.
• Sabbarwal however absented himself for duty.
• When he returned, he was charge sheeted for absence without leave.
• Sabarbwal was suspended during the inquiry.
• Thereupon Employees union instructed employees to stick to their seats and refuse to work until
suspension was taken away. The employees followed the order.
• Meanwhile a turbulent crowd gathered outside the premises of bank. They shouted
slogans in support of the employees.
• The management suspended 60 participating employees.
• This led to industry wide strike in Delhi and UP.
• Bank gave notice that unless the strikers resumed their duties by a specified date they
would be treated as having voluntarily ceased to be employees.
• On the failure of report to duty, the bank terminated the services of 150 of its
employees.
• On these facts question arose was what is the nature of the employees activities in
sticking to their seats but refusing to work?
• The SC recognized that the main grievance of the bank was that the
employees not only sat in their places and refused to work but they did not
vacate their seats when they were asked to do so.
• The court rejected the contention that the impugned activity was criminal tress
pass.
• Court observed:
• Refusal under Common understanding to continue to work is a strike and in
pursuance of such understanding the employees entered the premises and
refused to take their pens in their hands, that would no doubt be a strike
under Section 2(q) of ID Act.
 3. GO-SLOW:
• Workmen don't stay away from work, they do come but work in slow speed
to lower down production and cause loss to employer.
• The definition of strike uses the phrase “ Cessation of work”
• In these form of strikes, there is no cessation of work or refusal to continue
to work.
• But nevertheless, the economic implication is very serious.
• Go slow strike is NOT A STRIKE u/s 2(q) of the ACT.
• In the case of Bharat Sugar Mills V. Jai singh (1961), it was observed by the SC that:
• Go slow is likely to be much more harmful than total cessation of work by strike.
• For a while during a strike much of the machinery can be fully turned off, during go slow
the machinery is kept going on reduced speed which is often extremely damaging to
machinery parts. For all these reasons “ go-slow” has always been considered as a
serious type of misconduct.
• The aforesaid view was re-affirmed in Bank of India v. TS Kelawala (1990):
• ……. Go slow is a serious misconduct being a covert and a more damaging breach of a
contract of employment. It is insidious method of undermining discipline and at the same
time a crude device todefy the norms of work.
4. HUNGER STRIKE:
• the group of workers resort to fasting on or near the place of work or residence of
employer. It is a form of strike u/s 2(q).
• It is a strike with fasting by some or all strikers, or even outsiders added to exert moral
force. For acceptance of demands.
5. Lightning or Wildcat Strike
• Characteristic feature fs this type of strike is, that workmen suddenly withdraw their
labour and bargain afterward.
• Such strikes was prohibited earlier under the public utility services as notice was
required to be given.
6. WORK TO RULE:
• In this form of strike, though remaining in job, do the work literally in accordance with
rules or procedure laid down for the purpose, decline to do anything not
mentioned therein, and do the work in such a manner that it results in dislocation
of the work.
• Usually rules of work are stretched and followed in such a manner that the very
purpose of rules harmonious working, maximising production, is frustrated.
• Thus, Workmen strictly adhere to the rules while performing their duties which
ordinarily they do not observe.
• It is not a strike as per the IR Code 2020 as there is no stoppage of work at all.
Right to Strike not a Fundamental
Right
• Article 19(1)© not absolute.
• All India Bank employees Association V. National Industrial Tribunal (1962)
• ,…… even a very liberal interpretation of Sub-clause (c) of clause 1 of Article 19 cannot
lead to the conclusion that the trade unions have a guaranteed right to……… strike, either
as apart of collective bargaining or otherwise.
• Similarly AP HC in AP Electrical Equipment Corp. Hyderabad v. AP Electrical
Equipment Corporation staff Union (1986) held that right to Strike or lockout cannot
be a FR as it is controlled by provisions of ID ACT. and penal action is engrafted for
disobedience of the provision of strike or lockout.
• Hence right to strike can be stated as mere statutory right but not FR.
 BR Singh V. Union of India (!990)
• Though right t strike is not raised to high pedestal of FR…… it is
recognised as a mode of Redressal for resolving the grievances of
workers.
• But the right to strike is not absolute under our industrial jurisprudence
and restrictions have been placed on it.
 Thanks!
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