Lockouts 


Employers may try to anticipate a dispute or bring pressure to bear by locking out workers. A lockout is defined in section 235(4), ERA 96 to include closures or suspensions by the employer with a view to forcing workers to accept specific terms or conditions. 


Establishing when a lockout has taken place can present difficulties, but it may be important where individuals are claiming unfair dismissal. Section 26 of the Employment Relations Act 2004 extends the period of protection from unfair dismissal to include any time when employees are locked out. So if a group of workers wants to return to work after being on strike for 12 weeks (see above) and their employer refuses to let them back, they will still be protected from unfair dismissal. 


Lockouts have, until fairly recently, been rare in the UK. However, 2012 saw the return of this method of forcing workers to accept terms and conditions, with the lockout and eventual dismissal of 149 workers at Austrian-owned carton printer Mayr-Melnhof Packaging following protests over unfair redundancy terms — the first lockout in Britain for over 50 years. This was followed in 2013 by the Grangemouth Oil Refinery dispute in which a workforce was first locked out, and then threatened with closure of the refinery unless they conceded the employer’s demands, including cuts to pay and pensions. 


In relation to state benefits, locked out workers are treated in the same way as strikers.