On Saturday, October 24, 2020, the Student Standard Agency made a decision to implement a lockout of some workers in the Zadar cafeteria. This lockout exclusively targets workers who are on strike and comes into effect today.
We first encountered a lockout in July 2018, during a strike at the (HFHS) specifically in hostels in Zadar and Zagreb—when three striking workers were locked out. Novi sindikat sued the HFHS for an illegal lockout. Although the court of first instance upheld our position, the Supreme and Constitutional Courts ruled that it is possible to exclude striking workers as well. They argued that because the text of the law applies “only to workers,” it does not explicitly prohibit the exclusion of strikers. We informed the national union federations about these court decisions, but unfortunately, none of them took the problem seriously.
The Student Standard Agency’s decision explicitly states that striking workers are being excluded: “The Agency has excluded from work fewer than half of the striking workers, as specified in Art. 213, Para. 3 of the Labour Law.”
Such an interpretation of the law and a poor judicial decision—which likely stems from ignorance and is not based on international law leads to bad practice and a completely incorrect application of the lockout.
The original purpose of a lockout is to reduce economic damage to the employer. However, this application means that in all future strikes, employers could exclude strikers with the intent of minimizing the strike’s effectiveness, even though they have failed to do so thus far.
Home photo: Antenna Zadar
