Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Prohibition of strikes and lock-outs.— (1) No person employed in a public utility service shall go on strike, in breach of contract— (a) without giving to the employer notice of strike, as hereinafter provided, within six weeks before striking; or (b) within fourteen days of giving such notice; or (c) before the expiry of the date of strike specified in any such notice as aforesaid; or (d) during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings. (2) No employer carrying on any public utility service shall lock-out any of his workmen— (a) without giving them notice of lock-out as hereinafter provided, within six weeks before locking-out; or (b) within fourteen days of giving such notice; or (c) before the expiry of the date of lock-out specified in any such notice as aforesaid; or (d) during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings. (3) The notice of lock-out or strike under this section shall not be necessary where there is already in existence a strike or, as the case may be, lock out in the public utility service, but the employer shall send intimation of such lock-out or strike on the day on which it is declared, to such authority as may be specified by the appropriate Government either generally or for a particular area or for a particular class of public utility services. (4) The notice of strike referred to in sub-section (1) shall be given by such number of persons to such person or persons and in such manner as may be prescribed. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (5) The notice of lock-out referred to in sub-section (2) shall be given in such manner as may be prescribed. (6) If on any day an employer receives from any person employed by him any such notices as are referred to in sub-section (1) or gives to any persons employed by him any such notices as are referred to in sub-section (2), he, within five days, thereof report to the appropriate Government or to such authority as that Government may prescribe the number of such notices received or given on that day. Case Law Burden of back wages When the blame attaches to both the parties, i.e. employer and the workmen, the burden of the back wages for the long period that has elapsed between the dates of the end of strike and the date of the award, ordering their reinstatement, should be divided half and half between the parties; Indian General Navigation & Railway Co. Ltd. v. Their Workmen, (1960) 1 LLJ 13. Effect and Construction. The effect of section 22(1)(d) is clear. If a strike is declared in a public utility user during the pendency of a conciliation proceeding it is illegal. Under the construction the said provision, if a conciliation proceeding is pending between a union and (employer and it relates to matters concerning all the employees of the employer, pendency of the said conciliation proceeding would be a bar against all the employee of the employer employed in a public utility service to go on a strike during ‘ pendency of the proceeding, under section 22(l)(d); Ramnagar Cane & Sugar Co, v. jatin Chalin, AIR 1960 SC 1012. Notice Under section 22 of the Act, a notice of strike is required to be given, only in the case of any public utility service; U.P. State Bridge Corp. Ltd. v. U.P. Rajya Setu Nigam Sa Karamchari Sangh, (2004) 4 SCC 268.