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. Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve (of French: grve), or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Causes of strikes:

Strikes can occur because of the following reasons: Dissatisfaction with company policy Salary and incentive problems Increment not up to the mark Wrongful discharge or dismissal of workmen Withdrawal of any concession or privilege Hours of work and rest intervals Leaves with wages and holidays Bonus, profit sharing, Provident fund and gratuity Retrenchment of workmen and closure of establishment Dispute connected with minimum wages

TYPES OF STRIKE 1) Economic Strike: Under this type of strike, labors stop their work to enforce their economic demands such as wages and bonus. In these kinds of strikes, workers ask for increase in wages, allowances like traveling allowance, house rent allowance, dearness allowance, bonus and other facilities such as increase in privilege leave and casual leave. 2) Sympathetic Strike: When workers of one unit or industry go on strike in sympathy with workers of another unit or industry who are already on strike, it is called a sympathetic strike. The members of other unions involve themselves in a strike to support or express their sympathy with the members of unions who are on strike in other undertakings. The workers of sugar industry may go on strike in sympathy with their fellow workers of the textile industry who may already be on strike.

3) General Strike: It means a strike by members of all or most of the unions in a region or an industry. It may be a strike of all the workers in a particular region of industry to force demands common to all the workers. These strikes are usually intended to create political pressure on the ruling government, rather than on any one employer 4) Sit down Strike: In this case, workers do not absent themselves from their place of work when they are on strike. They keep control over production facilities. But do not work. Such a strike is also known as 'pen down' or 'tool down' strike. Workers show up to their place of employment, but they refuse to work. They also refuse to leave, which makes it very difficult for employer to defy the union and take the workers' places. In June 1998, all the Municipal Corporation employees in Punjab observed a pen down strike to protest against the non-acceptance of their demands by the state government. 5) Slow Down Strike: Employees remain on their jobs under this type of strike. They do not stop work, but restrict the rate of output in an organized manner. They adopt go-slow tactics to put pressure on the employers. 6) Sick-out (or sick-in): In this strike, all or a significant number of union members call in sick on the same day. They dont break any rules, because they just use their sick leave that was allotted to them on the same day. However, the sudden loss of so many employees all on one day can show the employer just what it would be like if they really went on strike. 7) Wild cat strikes: These strikes are conducted by workers or employees without the authority and consent of unions. In 2004, a significant number of advocated went on wildcat strike at the City Civil Court premises in Bangalore. They were protesting against some remarks allegedly made against them by an Assistant Commissioner.

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.For example, if a group of the workers strike so that the work of the rest of the workers becomes impossible or less productive, the employer may declare a lockout until the workers end the strike. Another case in which an employer may impose a lockout is to avoid slowdowns or intermittent work-stoppages. Occupation of factories has been the traditional method of response to lock-outs by the workers' movement. Lockouts in INDIA 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. According 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. PICKETING When workers are dissuaded from work by stationing certain men at the factory gates, such a step is known as picketing. If picketing does not involve any violence, it is perfectly legal. Pickets are workers who are on strike that stand at the entrance to their workplace. It is basically a method of drawing public attention towards the fact that there is a dispute between the management and employees. The purpose of picketing is:

to stop or persuade workers not to go to work to tell the public about the strike to persuade workers to take their union's side GHERAO

Gherao in Hindi means to surround. It denotes a collective action initiated by a group of workers under which members of the management are prohibited from leaving the industrial establishment premises by workers who block the exit gates by forming human barricades. The workers may gherao the members of the management by blocking their exits and forcing them to stay inside their cabins. The main object of gherao is to inflict physical and mental torture to the person being gheraoed and hence this weapon disturbs the industrial peace to a great extent.

According to Industrial Disputes Act 1947,Lockout [Sec. 2(1)]: Lockout 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". Lockout is the antithesis of strike. It is a weapon of the employer while strike is that of the workers.

Just as a strike is a weapon in the hands of the workers for enforcing their industrial demands, lockout is a weapon available to the employer to force the employees to see his points of view and to accept his demands. The Industrial Dispute Act does not intend to take away these rights.

 However, the rights of strikes and lockouts have been restricted to achieve the purpose of the Act, namely peaceful investigation and settlement of the industrial disputes. PROCEDUREOF LOCKOUTS According to Sec. 22(1) Worker should follow the rules mentioned below for doing Lockouts. The rules are as follows

Issue of notice of lockout is mandatory; The date of lockout must be within 6 weeks from the date of issue of strike notice; The day of lockout must not be within 14 days from the date of notice; There should be no lockout on any day before the date specified in the strike notice; There should be no lockout during the pendency of conciliation proceedings and 7 days after the conclusion of said proceedings;

Lay offs. Suspension or termination of employment (with or without notice) by the employer or management. Layoffs are not caused by any fault of the employees but by reasons such as lack of work, cash, or material. Permanent layoff is called redundancy.

Definitions:

when someone stops employing someone, sometimes temporarily, because there is no money to pay them or because there is no work for them -----dictionary.Cambridge

a temporary or permanent discharge of a worker or workers:

-----Oxford Dictionary
Layoff (in British and American English), also called redundancy in the UK, is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or (more commonly) a group of employees for business reasons, such as when certain positions are no longer necessary or when a business slow-down occurs. Originally the term layoff referred exclusively to a temporary interruption in work, as when factory work cyclically falls off. The term however nowadays usually means the permanent elimination of a position, requiring the addition of "temporary" to specify the original meaning. Lay Off simply means temporary closure of any work, division of establishment or entire establishment due to any reason such as non availability of material, power or for maintenance. By lay off workmen employed in such job, division or factory or

other establishment will become jobless for the time being. In order to compensate loss of remuneration, compensation at the rate of half the ordinary rate of pay will have to be paid to them. Employees who are in the continuous service of at least one year will be eligible for lay off compensation. Continuous service means total employment of 240 days in a year. Wages for this purpose mean basic wages plus dearness allowance. No lay off compensation is required to be paid for the weekly off days and declared holidays.The law relating to lay off is provided inIndustrial Disputes Act, 1947. According to the Section 25E of Industrial Dispute act 1947 employer can avoid the lay-off compensation to his employees who were laid-off, if he show them an alternative employment in the similar organization or field situate in the same town or village or situate within a radius of five miles from the establishment to which he belongs. Companies like Bharti Airtel, GE and Citigroup are searching suitable placement opportunities' for its employees who are going to laid-off. especially Citigroup helping its employees with coaching on job search skills, interview techniques, placement support and even basic application letter-writing skills. Because these companies believe that managing layoffs well is important for the sustainability of the 'employer brand'. Unemployment Compensation INDIA As per Industrial Disputes Act,1947Section 25-C says that a workmen shall be paid by the employer for all days during which he is so laid off, except for such weekly holidays as may intervene, compensation which shall be equal to 50% of the total of the basic wages and dearness allowance that would have been payable to him had he not been so laid When is the Right Time to Do Lay-Offs? When determining the appropriate time to conduct layoffs, you need to honestly ask yourself the following questions. 1. What is the worst case scenario? If production continues at the recent pace and does not improve, how many months can your company survive? How long can you survive and is your job secure? You need to always expect the best however a complete manager needs to plan for the worst case scenario. 2. Can production and revenue be fixed immediately? Are there training issues that are preventing you from success? Have you had an honest conversation with your employees letting them know the consequences should business not improve immediately? Perhaps recruiting a top producer from a competitor will immediately boost productivity.

3. Have you trimmed the fat already? Before turning to your human resources to cut costs, have you effectively cut your other organizational costs? Take a look at every line, no matter how minimal it may seem. 4. Can you cut salaries instead of cutting jobs? Most employees will understand a pay cut for a period of time until productivity improves. It is a much better alternative than losing their positions. 5. Have you solicited the help of a business consultant? Often a new pair of eyes from someone who specializes in this can offer suggestions and alternatives for your organization. Laying off staff is incredibly difficult, both emotionally for you and how it affects the culture of the organization, however it may be what you need to do to continue your business and protect the jobs and careers of others around you. Layoff Business Risks There are many negative consequences when management fails to properly manage the business risks associated with a reorganization including but not limited to reduced or vanished shareholder value, lost productivity, lost employee and customer loyalty, ruined business image, lawsuits, non-compliance with regulations or even business death. A chaotic reorganization of massive magnetite presents many negative consequences and risks: 1. Theft of physical and information assets by disgruntled employees, 2. Higher turnover rate than expected potentially leading to the loss of the most talented employees as they can easily find other jobs or start their own businesses, 3. Morale and productivity may decrease over time due to extended planning and execution of the plan unnecessarily leaving employees in the dark for too long allowing false rumors to spread which in turn create more problems for management to solve internally as well as externally such as flooded internet message boards feeding customers and investors false or confidential information, 4. Computer network costs may increase due to increased time spent by employees on the Internet to surf and look for jobs, 5. Less employee cooperation may lead to a series of business issues such as bad customer service, and lower productivity for others within the company and external partners, 6. For self preservation reasons, groups and individuals may take on projects that rest within the jurisdiction of another group which they might consider a surviving or even a thriving group within the end-state, 7. Prolonged layoff process may lead to plan manipulation, backroom deals, and favoritism,

Layoff Best Practices The "three be rule" is your best guide to the termination process when it comes time to tell the employee.

Be honest: Tell the employee why he or she is being laid off, even if it's for poor performance. You're not doing the employee or yourself any favors by concealing the reason. You may cushion the poor performance assessment in a variety of ways, but the truth must be told. For any layoffs due to poor performance, a recent record of poor performance reviews will support your decision and justify it to the employee. It may also be used as evidence if a wrongful dismissal suit is filed against the employer. Be compassionate: Being laid off can be painful. Show the terminated employee some compassion and understanding. If your firm has the capability, provide outplacement services or job counseling to help cushion the blow. Keep the employee's ego in mind - it may need a hefty boost at this time, and you can provide it by praising previous accomplishments. Be quick: A quick, surgical dismissal, while keeping the above recommendations in mind, is the most humane way to handle a layoff. You may want the employee to clean out his or her desk that day and it may be a good idea to have security escort the employee to the door. Too many terminated employees have taken out their sense of injustice or lust for revenge by sabotaging their computers or attempting to hurt their managers and colleagues. Being escorted to the door can be a humiliating experience for the terminated worker but it can prevent destructive expressions of rage. Dismissing an employee on a Friday afternoon is also an effective means of allowing the terminated worker an entire weekend to recover from the shock of dismissal.

off.