On November 22 2012 the NHRCK recommended that the Ministry of Employment and Labor improve the policies and practices of industry lockouts by employers to prevent illegal lockouts and keep them only as a defensive measure during a labor dispute.
With the proportion of lockouts to labor disputes rising lately, conflict between labor and management has accelerated. While an industry lockout has a significant impact on the balance of power between workers and employers, its legitimacy is often determined by judicial precedents, making it difficult to address its damage to laborer’s rights.
Against this backdrop, the NHRCK recommended that measures be taken to prevent the following:
- A lockout by employers before a labor dispute takes place
- A lockout that is not based on the size or nature of disputes
- A lockout that continues even after a union member or employee expressed his or her desire to return to work
- A lockout whose purpose is to limit the access of union members to a workplace
- Use of lockouts as a threat to press union members’ to withdraw from the union
- Disturbance of normal labor activities such as entrance into the union office during the lockout
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that it would accept the recommendations on March 20 2013. More specifically, the Ministry came up with specific guidance for the industry lockout and ways to notify relevant information such as time and a subject of the lock out in advance. Moreover, it is going to start on-site education on lockout on April 2013.
