In a lockout, the employer prevents employees from getting to work, suspends their salary payments and declares the workplace closed so that the personnel cannot do the work covered by the lockout.
A lockout implemented by the employer is an industrial action in the same way as a strike by employees when the industry does not have a valid collective agreement, i.e. the industry is in a so-called contract-free state. The lockout must be notified to the other party and the national mediator two weeks before the lockout is implemented.
A lockout can be used, for example, as a temporary or individual so-called on point days. The ban can also only apply to members of a trade union. A lockout can be declared not only by an individual company, but also by all member companies of the employers' association.