1. 'Strike' &'Lock out':Concepts, legality and justification

When BEST bus crews or bank staff in Mumbai announce a strike, the news always says it was called after the notice period ran out or that it is “illegal”. Why would a country that lets people form unions put a clock on when they can stop work? And why can an employer who shuts the factory gate be in just as much trouble as the workers outside it? This topic answers both: what a strike and a lock-out are, when each is legal, and why a strike can be legal and still be unjustified.

In two minutes

A strike is a collective stoppage or refusal to work by workers, a lock-out is the employer’s mirror-image temporary shutting of the workplace or refusal to employ, and under the Industrial Relations Code 2020 either becomes illegal if it breaks the notice, waiting-period or pendency rules of section 62; legality is a question of the statute, justification is a separate question of whether the cause was fair.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Labour Law and Industrial Relations – I on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.