Industrial Disputes -Meaning,Definition and Forms

2. Lockouts

Lockout refers to the action of an employer in temporarily closing down or shutting down the undertaking or refusing to provide its employees with work with the intention of forcing them either to accept the demands made by them or to withdraw the demands made by them on him

According to Industrial Dispute Act 1947

A lockout means the closing of a place of business or employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to employ any number of persons employed by him.

Thus a lockout is

1. The closure of an industrial undertaking because of the existence of or apprehension of an industrial dispute, violence and damage to property.
2. It is the suspension of employment in so far as the employer refuses to give work to the workmen until they yield to his demand or withdraw the demands made on him or because of closing down of a place of employment and the suspension of the work.
3. A lockout is an antithesis of a strike. Just as the employees can go on a strike, so the employer has weapon against the employees to lock the out of his premises and not allow them to return to work.
4. A lockout is used with some intention i.e. to coerce or force workmen to come to terms. The lockouts, thus necessarily involve an overt act on the part of the employer and an element of motive of ill-will. In the absence of this overt act, the temporary suspension of work would not amount to a lockout and the workmen cannot claim wages for the period of closure.

The following do not constitute a lockout.

1. Prohibiting an individual employee is not a lockout.
2. Termination of employment by retrenchment does not amount to lockout.
3. Termination of services of more than one person at the same time would not be a lockout.
4. Declaration of lockout by an employer merely on the ground that the workmen have refrained from attending to work is not lockout.