STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS: CONCEPT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

In any industrial endeavour co-operation of labour and capital is quite essential for its success, although they have interests contrary to each other. They have different strategies and weapons to ventilate their grievances and safeguard their interests. These democratic weapons often used by them are strikes and lockouts. Just as strike is a weapon available to employees for enforcing their industrial demands, a lockout is a weapon available to the employer to persuade by a coercive process to see his point of view and to accept his demands. In the struggle between capital and labour, as the weapon of strike is available to labour and is often used by it, so is the weapon of lockout available to the employer and can be used by him.
Strike: Strike is one of the oldest and the most effective weapons of labour in its struggle with capital for securing economic justice. The basic strength of a strike lies in the labour's privilege to quit work and thus brings a forced readjustment of conditions of employment. It owes its origin to old English words 'Striken to go'. In common parlance it means hit, impress, occur to, to quit work on a trade dispute. The later meaning is traceable to 1768. Later on it varied to 'strike of work'. The composite idea of quitting work or withdrawal of work as a coercive act could be gathered in the use of word as a verb as well as adjective. The definition and use of the word 'strike' has been undergoing constant transformation around the basic concept of stoppage of work or putting of work by employees in their economic struggle with capital.
The term 'strike' has been defined in a wide variety of branches of human knowledge, viz., etymology, sociology, political economy, law and political science.
Strike has been defined in Section. 2(q) of the Industrial Disputes Act as under:-
"Strike means a cessation of work by abody 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".
The analysis of the definition would show that there are the following essential requirements for the existence of strike:

• There must be cessation of work.
• The cessation of work must be by a body of persons employed in any industry.
• The strikers must have been acting in combination.
• The strikers must be working in any establishment which can be called industry within the meaning of section. 2(j).
• There must be concerted refusal.
• Refusal under a common understanding of anyy number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment.
• They must stop work for some demands relating to employment, non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of labour of the workmen. 

Ingredients of strike:

1. Cessation of work: This is the most important characteristic of strike. It has been variedly expressed as 'abandonment', 'stoppage', 'omission of performance of duties of their posts', 'hampering or reducing normal works', 'hinerance to the working or suspension of work, discontinuing the employmentor breaking their contract of service or refusing or failing to return to or resume employment or refusing or failing to accept engagement for any work which they are usually employed for. Thus what is required for strike is that there must be stoppage of work or there must be refusal to continue to work or to accept employment by any number of personsemployed for the work but the refusal must be concerted or under a common understanding. The cessation of work may take any form. It must, however, be temporary and not forever and it must be voluntary. No duration can be fixed for this. If the cessation of work is as a result of renunciation of work or relinquishment of the strikers' status or relationship, it is not srike. Permanent cessation of work would result in termination of the contract of work which is alien to the underlying sanction of strike retaining contractual relationship during the strike periods. Cessation of work is not a cessation of contract of employment.
2. Concerted action: Another important ingredient of strike is a concerted action. The workers must act under a common understanding. The cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry in combination is a strike. Thus in strike it must be proved that there was cessation of work or stoppage of work under a common understanding or it was a concerted action of the workers or there was cessation of work by workers acting in combination. Stoppage of work by workers individually does not amount to strike. The concerted refusal or refusal under a common understanding to continue to work or to accept employment or to resume work by any number of persons is a strike. One thing must be kept in mind that the refusal of work means refusal to perform duties which the workers are required to perform. If the workers are at liberty to do a particular work or not to do work their refusal to work does not amount to strike. For example, over-time work, if it is the duty of workers to do overtime work necessarily because it is the practice of that establishment to take overtime work from the workers in that case refusal to work overtime would amount to strike otherwise not. Thus the test to determine whether refusal to do overtime work constitutes a strike or not would depend upon whether overtime was habitually worked in that industry.

The strike is illegal

1. if it is in breach of contract of employment.
2. if it is in public utility services.
3. if notice under section. 22(1) is not given.
4. if commenced during award or settlement period.
5. if commenced during or within seven days of completion of conciliation proceedings.
6. if commenced during or within two months of completion of adjudicatory proceedings.

Lockouts
The use of the term 'lockout' to describe employer's instruments of economic coercion dates back to 1860 and is younger than its counterparts in the hands of workers, strike by one hundred years. Formerly the instrument of lockout was resorted to by an employer or group of employers to ban union membership: the employers refused employment to workers who did not sign a pledge not to belong to trade union. Later the lockout was declared generally by a body of employers against a strike at a particular work by closing all factories until strikers returned to work. India witnessed lockout twenty-five years after the lockout was known and used in the area of labour management relations in industrially advanced countries. The first known lockout was declared in 1895 in Budge Budge Jute Mills. Section. 2(1) defines the term lockout. However, the present definition is only a mutilated one. The term was originally and correctly defined in the Trade Disputes Act, 1929. From the definition given in the Trade Disputes Act, the present Act has taken the present definition but has only omitted the words "when such closing, suspension or refusal occurs in consequences of a dispute and is intended for the purpose of compelling those persons or of aid in another Employer in compelling persons employed by him to accept terms or conditions of, or affecting employment".
With the omission of these words, the present definition fails to convey the very concept of lockout. In Sri Ramchandra Spinning Mills V/s. State of Madras, the Madras High Court read the deleted portion in the definition to interpret the term lockout. According to the Court, a flood may have swept away the factory, a fire may have gutted the premises; a convulsion of nature may have sucked the whole place under ground; still if the place of employment is closed or the work is suspended or the employer refuses to continue to employ his previous workers, there would be a lockout and the employer would find himself exposed to the penalties laid down in the Act. Obviously, it shows that the present definition does not convey the concept of the term lockout.
Lockout, when legal 
The Act treats strikes and lockouts on the same basis; it treats one as the counter part of the other. Thus what holds good-bad; legal-illegal; justified-unjustified for strikes holds the same for lockout. As such, the provisions of the Act which prohibit the strike also prohibits the lockout.
The object and reasons for which the lockouts are banned or prohibited are the same for which strikes are banned or prohibited. It is because the employers and employees are not discriminated in their respective rights in the field of industrial relationship between the two. As such, lockout if not in conflict with Sections. 22 and 23 may be said to be legal or not legal. Sections. 24(1)(iii), 10(3) and 10A (4A) similarly controls the lockout. A lockout in consequence of illegal strike is not deemed to be illegal. But if lockout is illegal, Section. 26(2), 27 and 28 will come in operation to deal with the situation. The Act does not lay down any guidelines to settle the claims arising out of illegal lockout. The courts, therfore, have adopted the technique of apportioning the blame between the employer and employees. This once agian brings to the fore the concept of justfiability of lockout.
The Statutory Definiion:
Section. 2(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 defines 'lockout' to mean: The temporarary closing of employment or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him. A delineation of the nature of this weapon of industrial warfare requires description of: (i). the acts which constitute it; (ii). the party who uses it; (iii). the party against whom it is directed; and (iv). the motive which prompts resort to it.
Prohibition of Lockout: 
In the similar circumstances the lockout has been prohibited in the public utitlity service. Section. 22(2) of the Act provides that no employer carrying on any public utility service shall lockout any of his workmen:

• without giving them notice of lockout as hereinafter provided, within six weeks befor locking out.
• within 14 days of giving notice.
• before the expiry of the day of lockout specified in any such notice as aforesaid.
• during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings.

 It makes clear that the employer has to comply with the same conditions before he declares lockout in his industrial establishment which the workmen are required to comply with before they go on strike. The conditions for both the parties are the same.

Conclusion:

India in the present context of economic development programmes cannot afford the unqualified right to the workers to strike or to the employer to lockout. compulsory arbitration as an alternative of collective bargaining has come to stay. The adoption of compulsory arbitration does not, however, necessarily mean denial of the right to strike or stifling of trade union movement. If the benefits of legislation, settlements and awards are to reach the individual worker, not only the trade union movement has to be encouraged and its outlook broadened but the laws have also to be tailored suitably. The existing legislation and judicial pronouncements lack breadth of vision. Indeed, the statutory definitions of 'strike' and 'lockout' have been rendered worse by a system of interpretation which is devoid of policy-oriented approach and which lays undue stress on semantics. The discussion of the concepts and definition of strike has sought to establish the legalistic consideration has frequently weighed with the court in interpreting and expounding the said statutory definition: We believe that emphasis on literal interpretation resulted in ignoring the ordinarily understood connotation of the term strike and in encouraging undesirable activity. We now pass on to acts which constitute strike. Unlike the Industrial Relations Bill, 1978 the three phrases used in the definition of 'strike' in IDA are not qualified by the expression 'total' or 'partial'. Further, they do not specifically take into account go-slow. The courts have accordingly excluded go-slow from the purview of 'strike'. However, the exclusion of go-slow from the ambit of 'strike' throws them open to the third party suits for damages.

Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-301/302, St. No. 9,

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203, 

Satya Classic Apartments, 

Tarnaka, Secunderabad-500 017

Cell. No. 9985732397

Land Line No. 040-27000719.  

EFFICACY OF LORD'S NAME

Saint Thiagaraja asks in one of his compositions, "Where did you get this name Rama from", and himself provides the answer in the charanam stating that "the 'ma' is the life infusing syllable in the panchakshara mantra and, together with the 'ra', it symbolises the primordial sound. I prostrate at the feet of such men of wisdom who have realised this. Such is the efficacy of the name of the Lord who epitomised virtuous conduct in His manifestation. Yet people fail to pay heed to this profound philosophy exhibiting, instead, an unseemly interest in trivia.
It is not easy to launch on a path of spiritual yearning given the fact that our minds tend to wander in different directions; however, when we utter the name of the Lord the mind gets enchanted and focuses on the Supreme Being.
The Azhwars too emphasised the benefits of chanting His name. For, one is then in line with one's spiritual goal. The Mundaka Upanishad says that ceaseless individual effort alone will teach the desired result. Not the celestials, not even the Divine Mother, is exempt from this. When Lord Shiva was transfixed on Lord Rama's face and exuded devotion of unprecedented order. Dakshyayini was puzzled at Her Consort's reaction to a mere mortal.
Lord Shiva, aware that everyone has to work out the equation of the Supreme Being on his own, enjoined on her to resolve her dilemma, her delusions, by her own initiative. Dakshyayini resolved to test Rama by appearing in the garb of Sita; however, the Omniscient not only saw through the feeble deception by asking after her Shiva, but also offered ample roof of his maya. For, when a chastened Dakshyayini turned to retrace her steps to kailash she found that whichever direction she turned, she saw only the form of Lord Rama and Sita.
Dakshyayini had to live alone since Shiva refused to take her back. With each day seeming like an age, she decalred: "In the anguish of my heart, I pray to Rama who is hailed as the Lord of compassion, and of whom the vedas sing as the remover of distress". Events transpired as desired, and she found happiness in her next birth.  

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.: Administration of justice is one of the essential functions of the state. The law and order within the state is maintained through the administration of justice and the citizens are made to realise the existence and the importance of the state. The administration of justice in reaching its present form passed through various stages. In the primitive society when a wrong was done against an individual, he had to resort to self-help and it was based on private vengeance.  

SPIRITUALITY

(1).HEARTFELT PRAYER GIVES SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE

The impulse to pray is natural. What is important, however, is not the physical act of praying but the spiritual stateinduced by prayer. Brief and joyful prayer is superior to long, wearying prayer. Though prayer may help obtain specific material ends, it is more important to pray for conformity to the Will of God. The highest prayer is offered only out of love for God. There are many moments when we think: "God has established everything and executes all affairs after the best order. Therefore what is the wisdom in beseeching, supplicating and seeking help?" A seeker of bounty needs to beseech the Glorious Beautiful One. When you supplicate to the Lord and seek bounty from His Ocean, this supplication brings light to your heart, life to your soul and exultation to your being. During your supplication to God and your reciting, 'Thy name is my healing', consider how your heart is cheered, your soul delighted by the spirit of the love of God, and your mind attracted to the kingdom of God. By these attractions your ability and capacity increase. When the vessel is enlarged the water increases, and when thirst grows the bounty of the cloud becomes agreeable to the taste of man. If one friend feels love for another, he will wish to say so. Though he knows that the friend is aware that he loves him he will still wish to say so...God knows the wishes of our hearts. But the impulse to pray is a natural one, springing from your love for God. Prayer need not be in words, but rather in thought and attitude. However, if this love and desire are lacking, it is useless to try to force them. Words without love mean nothing. If a person talks to you as an unpleasant duty, with no love or pleasure in his meeting with you, you won't wish to converse with him. Worship God in such ways that if your worship leads you to the fire, no alteration in your adoration would be produced, and so likewise if your recompense should be paradise. This worship befits the one True God. Should you worship Him beacuase of fear, this would be unseemly in the sanctified court of His presence, and could not be regarded as an act by you dedicated to the Oneness of His Being. Or if your gaze should be on paradise, and you should worship Him while cherishing such a hope, you would make God's creation a partner with Him, notwithstanding the fact that paradise is desired by us. Fire and paradise both bow and prostrate themselves before God. That which is worthy of His essence is to worship Him for His sake, without fear of fire or hope of paradise. Although when true worship is offered, the worshipper is delivered from the fire, and enter the paradise of God's good pleasure, yet such should not be the motive of your act. However, God's favour and grace ever flow in accordance with the exigencies of His inscrutable wisdom. The most acceptable prayer is the one offered with utmost spirituality and radiance. The more detached and the purer the prayer, the more acceptable is it in the presence of God.

By,

C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-301, St. No. 9,

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic Apartments,

Tarnaka, Secunderabad-500 017,

Andhra Pradesh, India.

Cell. No. 9985732397

Land Line. 040-27000719

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(2). ANGER MANAGEMENT.  

Anger is one word short of danger. People with short tempers are 

also vulnerable to heart related ailments. Anger could be triggered by stress, lack of sleep, crash diets and insufficient water intake. How can we reduce anger?

(1). Practice relaxation exercises and breathing techniques to calm the mind and body.

(2). Learn to resolve conflicts through effective communication minus outbursts.

(3). Use problem-solving techniques such as goal setting and time management to reduce stress levels.

(4). Eating well and at regular intervals helps to keep energy levels in check.

(5). Get at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep, so that you don't feel irritable and grouchy.

(6). Take a break when you are tired. This can help you rejuvenate.

(7). Keep yourself upbeat by indulging in a hobby.

(8). Compaartmentalise your work and personal lives.

(9). Nurture your support systems, like family and friends.

(10). Regular exercise helps to keep the mind and body fresh.

(11). Seek counselling for interpersonal conflicts.

(12). Be assertive instead of aggressive.

Strategies to control aggression:--

1. Accept that being angry is perfectly normal.
2. Identify your source/trigger of anger.
3. Shift your focus from 'what was done to me' to 'what I can do' ?
4. Create positive self-talk.
5. Identify your irrational beliefs.
6. Think of a more rational and adaptive plan of action.
7. Change thoughts that provoke anger, interpreting the situation from a different (less provocative) point of view.
8. Write down angry thoughts.
9. Focus on gratitude--make a list of things you are thankful for.

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BEAUTIFUL LIFE

"Beauty is necessary for humans. Without beauty we shrink. This shrinking is manifested in various 'civilisational' diseases in states of depression, apathy, hopelessness that jointly under-cut the roots of our existence", says eco-philosopher Henryk Skolimowski. Beauty is the expression of the coherence of life. Plotiums says that "the more beautiful the object, the more intensively does it exist". Poet Gabriela Mistral says that "beauty is the shadow of God on the universe".

People have been obsessed with beauty since the evolution of the universe. A living beiing is more beautiful than a non-living one. Beautiful and natural landscapes evoke beauty in the eyes of the beholder and convey the message of an intensive and vibrant life. Himalayan peaks topped with snow look enchanting as they convey the message of life's sustainability. A joy forever - Beauty evokes a host of emotions, too numerous to enumerate here. Suffice it to say that it is imperative for the enhancement of life; it is enchanting and demanding; creates attraction and attachment and generates love that explodes energy for creation. Since time immemorial, man has been obssessed with beautiful things, places and people. Whatever is beautiful is worth possessing. We can't seem to have enough of it and want to possess more and more. Beauty blooms with liveliness and hope.

We want to live among natural beauty too and are always looking for natural beauty in the landscape around us. Beauty is an inexhaustible source of joy and has the power of healing too. True beauty illuminates the soul. It is, in fact, food for the soul. 

The universe is so beautiful. Everything in this space is so enchanting, exciting and attractive. The Earth is a true beauty, the most beautiful planet in the whole universe. The universe has woven this beauty into its natural landscape through the evolution of life and the natural, physical changes it has undergone over millions of years.

The beautiful colours of nature are a reflection of divine light, a source of universal creativity.

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CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF SIKH GURUS

1. Shri. Guru Nanak Dev ji.
2. Shri. Guru Angad Dev ji.
3. Shri. Guru Amar Das.
4. Shri. Guru Ramdas.
5. Shri. Guru Arjan Dev ji.
6. Shri. Guru Hargobind ji.
7. Shri. Guru Har Rai ji.
8. Shri. Guru Harkrishan ji.
9. Shri. Guru Tegh Bahadur ji.
10. Shri. Guru Gobind Singh ji.
11. Shri. Guru Granth Sahib ji.

Shri. Guru Granth Sahib ji is the current sikh guru (the sikh holy book). 

LAW

CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY UNDER SECTION 120-A AND 120-B OF THE INDIAN PENAL CODE.
120-A. Definition of criminal conspiracy.- When two or more persons agree to do, or cause to be done-
(1). an illegal act, or 
(2). an act which is not illegal by illegal means, such an agreement is designated a criminal conspiracy: 
Provided that no agreement except an agreement to commit an offence shall amount to a criminal conspiracy unless some act besides the agreement is done by one or more parties to such agreement in pursuance thereof. 
Explanation: It is immaterial whether the illegal act is the ultimate object of such agreement, or is merely incidental to that object.

Comment  

Ingredients of Criminal Conspiracy.- The ingredients of the offence of criminal conspiracy are (1). there must be an agreement between the persons who are alleged to conspire; (2). that the agreement should be (a). for doing an illegal act, or (b). for doing by illegal means an act which may not itself be illegal; and (3). in the case of a conspiracy other than a conspiracy to commit an offence there must be an overt act done by one or more of the parties to the conspiracy to effect the object thereof. A distinction is drawn between an agreement to commit an offence and an agreement of which either the object or the methods employed are illegal but do not constitute an offence. In the case of the former, the criminal conspiracy is completed by the act done by one or more of the parties to the agreement to effect the object thereof, that is, there must be an overt act. Criminal Consppracy as defined in Section. 120-A of the Indian Penal Code is an agreement by two or more persons to do or cause to be done an illegal act or an act wwhich is not illegal by illegal means. The agreement is the gist of the offence. In orderto constitute a single general conspiracy there must be a common design. Each conspirator plays his separate part in one integrated and united effort to achieve the common purpose. Each one is aware that he has a part to play in a general conspiracy though he may not know all its secrets or the means by which the common purpose is to be accomplished. The evil scheme may be promoted by a few, some may drop out and some may join at a later stage, but the conspiracy continues until it is broken up. The conspiracy may develop in successive stages. There may be a general plan to accomplish the common design by such means as may from time to time be found expedient. New techniques may be invented and new means may be devised for advancement of the common plan. A general conspiracy must be distinguished from a number of separate conspiracies having a similar general purpose. Where different groups of persons cooperate towards their separate ends without any privity with each other, each combination constitutes a separate conspiracy. The common intention of the conspirators then is to work for the furtherance of the common design of his group only. [Mohd. Husain Umar Kochra, etc. Vs. K.S. Dalipsinghji and another, etc. (1970) I S.C.J. 149]. The gist of the offence defined in Section. 120-A, Indian Penal Code, which is itself punishable as a substantive offence is the very agreement between two or more persons to do or cause to be done an illegal act or a legal act by illegal means subject however to the proviso that where thhe agreement is not an agreement to commit an offence the agreement does not amount to a conspiracy unless it is followed up by an overt act done by one or more persons in pursuance of such an agreement. There must be a meeting of minds in the doing of the illegal act by illegal means. If in the furtherance of the conspiracy certain persons are induced to do an unlawful act without the knowledge of the conspiracy or the plot they cannot be held to be conspirators, though they may be guilty of an offence pertaining to the specified unlawful act. The offence of conspiracy is complete, when two or more conspirators have agreed to do or cause to be done an act which is itself an offence, in which case no overt act need be established. It is also clear that an agreement to do an illegal act which amounts to a conspiracy will continue as long as the members of the conspiracy remain in agreement and as long as they are acting in accord and in furtherance of the object for which they entered into the agreement.[Lenart Schussler Vs. The Director of Enforcement, New Delhi, 1971 1 S.C.J. 199]. 

Illustration.- Where on the allegations in the complaint A-2 asked A-1 to help him in acquiring foreign exchange abroad legally and A-1 agreed to help him, the agreement though initially may not have been an offence was nonetheless an offence subsequently. A-1 did not withdraw from it and was said to have continued to carry out that agreement. A-1's help was necessary for A-2's design. It would, therefore, appear that on the allegations contained in the complaint A-1 and A-2 could be charged with an offence under Secton. 120-B read with Sections. 4(3), 5(1)(e) and 9 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. 
In Yash Pal Mittal Vs. The State of Punjab, 1978 Criminal Law Journal. 189 AIR 1977 SC 2433, their Lordships of the Supreme Court observed that the offence of criminal conspiracy under Section. 120-A is a distinct offence introduced for the first time in 1913 in Chapter. V-A of the Indian Penal Code. The very agreement, concert or league is the ingredient of the offence. It is not necessary that all the conspirators must know each and every detail of the conspiracy. There may be so many devices and techniques adopted to achieve the common goal of the conspiracy and there may be division of performances in the chain of actions with one object to achieve the common goal of the conspiracy and there may be division of performances in the chain of actions with one object to achieve the real end of which every collaborator must be interested. There must be unity of object or purpose but there may be plurality of means sometimes even unknown to one another, amongst the conspirators. In achieving the goal several offences may be committed by some of the conspirators even unknown to the others. The only relevant factor is that all means adopted and illegal acts done must be purported to be in furtherance of the object of the conspiracy even though there may be sometimes misfire or overshooting by some of the conspirators. Even if some steps are resorted to by one or two of the conspirators without the knowledge of the others it will not affect the culpability of those others when they are associated with the object of the conspiracy. The significance of criminal conspiracy under Section. 120-A is brought out pithily by the Supreme Court in E.G. Barsay Vs. The State of Bombay, AIR 1961, SC 1962, 1778, thus: "The gist of the offence is an agreement to break the law. The parties to such an agreement will be guilty of criminal conspiracy, though the illegal act agreed to be done has not been done. So too, it is not an ingredient of the offence that all the parties should agree to do do a single illegal act. It may comprise the commission of a number of acts. Under Section. 43 of the Indian Penal Code, an act would be illegal if it is an offence or if it is prohibited by law. Under the first charge the accused are charged with having conspired to do three categories of illegal acts, and the mere fact that all of them could not be convicted separately in respec of each of the offences has no relevancy in considering the question where the offence of conspiracy to do illegal acts though for individual offences all of them may not be liable." 
Conspiracy consists not merely  in the intention of two or more but in the agreement of two or more to do an unlawful act or to do an unlawful act by unlawful means. So long as a design rests in the intention only, it is not indictable. [Mulcahy Vs. Queen 1868 L.R. 4 H.L. 306, 317].