직장폐쇄의 대상과 효과에 관한 해석의 문제점 -2010년 이 후 직장폐쇄 사례를 중심으로

Abstract

A lockout is a counteraction of the employer against workers’ industrial action when he/she is placed at a significantly disadvantageous situation. The employer can temporarily refuse to accept the labor of workers and be exempt from the obligation to pay wages in collective manner, in order to restore the balance of power between the employer and the workers. Employer can evict workers from a manufacturing plant, where workers normally provide labor, to maximize the effect of lockout. In recent cases of industrial action, increasing number of labor disputes have been caused by the employers’ abuse of lockouts as a means to expel members of labor union from the company. Supreme court extends excessively the effect of a lockout by ruling that the employer is entitled to request the workers legitimately occupying parts of the workplace to vacate the company as the effect of lockout. The Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act prescribes only the definition and the initiation requirements of the lockout. The lack of concrete rules regarding the scope and validity of a lockout becomes the cause of conflict between labor and management, and therefore the complementary legislation is necessary.