PROJECT

ON
EFFECTS OF STRIKES AND
LOCKOUT

SUBMITTED TO :- P r o f . R A I N A

SUBMITTED BY:- MONIKA SHARMA (103)

We sincerely thanks Prof. RAINA for giving an
o p p o r t u n i t y t o w o r k s u c h pr o j e c t . W e a l s o t h a n k s f or
providing necessary information which help me in order
to compiling this project in a better manner.

We have also tried to cover all the aspects of the

project and every care has taken to make project
faultless.

W e w i l l b e l o o k i n g f o r s u c h t y p e o f p r oj e c t t o in future
and do my best.

2
 INTRODUCTION
Strike costing India Rs 10,000 cr daily: Truckers

The All India Motor Transport Congress has claimed its members are
incurring a daily loss of Rs 1,000 crore, while it is taking a toll of Rs 10,000
crore per day on the country's overall business due to the strike, which
continued for the second day on Tuesday.

"The transporters in the country are facing a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore
every day due to stopping of business," AIMTC President Charan Singh
Lohara told reporters in New Delhi.

He claimed that due to the ongoing strike, "the country is incurring huge
business losses to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore per day".

AIMTC, the umbrella body with over 4,000 affiliated unions, claimed that
about 60 lakh trucks have been taking part in the strike demanding lower
diesel prices, single national permit fee and exemption from service tax
among other things.

"Different finance companies have taken back about 40,000 trucks across the
country due to loan default," Lohara said, adding the government should
support the truckers' community like it did for other sectors like real estate
and aviation.

"ATF prices have been cut eight times since global crude prices started to
fall, but the same has not been done with diesel," he added.

As the government is currently mulling to bring ATF under declared goods

category, diesel should also be brought under the same, with four per cent
uniform VAT across the country, Lohara added.

He also asked the government to allow duty-free import of tyres, mainly

radial tyres, to break the cartel of domestic manufacturers.

3
Across India, bank employees go on two-day strike on Friday,
August 7th, 2009

Nearly one million bank employees in India, including some with private and
foreign banks, went on a two-day nationwide strike Thursday demanding
higher wages and a better social security net.

The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions — an
umbrella organisation representing nine unions of officers and other staff in
the banking industry.

According to reports coming in from across the country, people were able to
withdraw money from automated teller machines (ATMs) even though other
services like getting demand drafts and obtaining cheque books were
affected. “No transactions till Saturday in any public sector bank or
branches,” said K.F. Mamadapur, secretary of one of the striking unions, the
All-India State Bank Officers’ Federation, in Bangalore.

Apart from the staff in all state-run banks, those with private entities like
Catholic Syrian Bank and foreign ones like HSBC also joined the agitation.
But the operations of some institutions like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and
Standard Chartered were unaffected.

“Around 10 lakh employees across all the public sector and private sector
banks have gone on strike,” said Rajen Nagar, national president of another
union — All India Bank Employees’ Association.

“We are also protesting against unnecessary government intervention, which

is delaying our wage settlement,” Nagar told IANS in Kolkata.

The wage revision is due from November 2007.

In Madhya Pradesh, the strike affected commercial activities in major cities

such as Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur. “Total transaction worth
Rs.150,000 crore were affected,” claimed All India Bank Employees
Association general secretary V.K. Sharma.

In seven northeastern states, more than 30,000 bank employees took part in
the agitation.

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In Karnataka, about 80,000 employees of public sector and old private banks
across the state, including 25,000 in the city are on strike. As a result, there
were long queues at ATMs in Bangalore.

“People are queuing up in large numbers at ATMs to withdraw as much

money before they run out of cash. With heavy withdrawals and no
replenishments, most ATMs will turn dry by Thursday night or early
Friday,” Mamadapur said.

In Hyderabad, too, there were long queues outside the ATMs, some of which
ran out of cash in the afternoon and are unlikely to be replenished before
Saturday.

Said Usha Ramakrishnan, who has an account with the State Bank of India in
Delhi: “I was able to withdraw money. But I will have to go to a private bank
— ICICI Bank or something — to get a pay order. The kind of trouble we
used to face earlier isn’t there now. But it is irritating.”

The main demands of the striking staff are wage increase, a better social
security net to take care of their post-retirement needs and a proper policy for
giving jobs to the family members of deceased or disabled employees on
compassionate grounds.

The unions have been demanding a 20-percent wage hike, and rejected the
offer of 17.5 percent increase made Wednesday by the Indian Banks’
Association (IBA) that represents the bank managements.

The government had asked the unions to hold talks with the bank
managements and the chief labour commissioner, but the parleys were
inconclusive.

“The association is playing with us. When they agreed to 17.5 percent hike
initially, they brought in another clause that the pension load should be borne
equally,” said N.S. Virk, vice president the All India Bank Officers’
Association. “This is after they signed a memorandum of understanding,” he
said.

5
 Right to Strike Under Industrial Dispute Act, 1947
Introduction

Every right comes with its own duties. Most powerful rights have more
duties attached to them. Today, in each country of globe whether it is
democratic, capitalist, socialist, give right to strike to the workers. But this
right must be the weapon of last resort because if this right is misused, it will
create a problem in the production and financial profit of the industry. This
would ultimately affect the economy of the country. Today, most of the
countries, especially India, are dependent upon foreign investment and under
these circumstances it is necessary that countries who seeks foreign
investment must keep some safeguard in there respective indu...

TU Figures Belie Govt Claims On Industrial Strikes

The issue of industrial relations during the Nineties has pitted the
government claims against those of trade union leaders. According to a PTI
report on Thursday, the government claimed that there has been a significant
improvement in industrial relations during the Nineties compared to the
Eighties with cases of strikes and lockouts registering a steep fall.

A review of data on work stoppages arising out of industrial disputes reveals

a significant improvement in industrial relations scenario during the Nineties
as compared to the Eighties, labour ministry sources told the PTI.

Stating that strikes and lockouts have shown not only a declining trend but
also a steep fall, they said the number of such disputes dipped from 1,825
during 1990 to 555 during 2001.

The total number of strikes and lockouts has also declined . While in the
public sector, the number dropped drastically from 628 during 1990 to a
paltry 112 during 2001, the private sector witnessed a perceptible drop in
industrial disputes from 1,197 during 1990 to 443 during 2001, according to
government.

Attributing the improvement in the industrial relations to harmonious

atmosphere conducive to higher investment and growth, officials said the
new economic policy has brought about positive changes in the post-reform
era. Credit also went to both the management and the workers for this, they
said.

6
Official claims were,disputed by the Centre of Industrial Trade Unions
(Citu), which is affiliated to the CPM. In a press release, Citu said the
government claim is based on data that is at best a quick estimate. Quoting
the Shimla-based Labour Bureau, the union said, "the number of workers
involved in strike/lockouts during 1991 was 13.42 lakh, as against 14.18 lakh
during 2000. The number of mandays lost also increased from 26.43 million
in 1991 to 28.76 million." The government is "conspicuously hiding this
aspect of the data,"

7
 Analysis Of Strikes and Lockouts

In 1990, 1,825 strikes and lockouts were recorded. As a result, 24.1 million
workdays were lost, from which 10.6 million were lost to strikes and 13.5
million to lockouts. More than 1.3 million workers were involved in these
labor disputes. The number and seriousness of strikes and lockouts have
varied from year to year. As can be seen from the below chart, there has been
a steep decline in the number of strikes and lockouts. This continuous
decline in strikes and lockouts indicates that the industrial relations in India
are improving. There were 227 strikes in 2005, resulting in the loss of 10.81
million man-days, while the number of lockouts stood at 229 with a loss of
18.86 million man-days. In January-September 2006, there were only 154
strikes and 192 lockouts across the country, as compared to the statistics of
2005, which resulted in the time loss of 3.16 million man-days and 10.60
million man-days respectively.

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The number of strikes and lockouts, taken together, was down by 4.4 per
cent in 2005. During 2005, West Bengal experienced the maximum instances
of strikes and lockouts (19216) followed by Kerala (3619) and Rajasthan
(19247). Industrial disturbances were concentrated mainly in manufacturing
(textile), financial intermediation, agriculture and mining and quarrying
industries during 2005.

During 2000, 426 strikes and 325 lockouts were observed which resulted in
total time-loss of 28.76 million mandays. Maximum time-loss was caused by
297 lockouts during 2003 which resulted in a time-loss of 27.05 million
mandays. As compared to previous years, in 2006 only 13.76 million
mandays were lost due to strikes and lockouts.