Labor Strikes in Islam

10-9-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

What is the Islamic ruling on striking, i.e. not going to offices due to delay in receiving salary?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Dear brother, going on strike is a means to press for something. So, its ruling differs according to the objective behind it. If the objective is to get some rights for the workers such as getting delayed salaries, then there is no harm in doing this because the employer has not fulfilled one of the conditions of the contract which is to pay the salary on monthly basis. The Prophet said: “The Muslims are bound to the conditions they set for themselves.” [Abu Daawood]

Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet said: “Allah says, 'I will be against three persons on the Day of Resurrection:

1. One who makes a covenant in My Name, but he proves treacherous;

2. One who sells a free person (as a slave) and eats the price;

3. And one who employs a laborer and gets the full work done by him but does not pay him his wages.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Anyway, know that going on strike or protesting in any other form should be limited to getting some benefit or avoiding some harm. So, strikes or protests should not be done if they can lead to perversion or to something worse.

In fact, the harm should not be lifted through a greater harm and the evil should not be removed by causing a greater evil.

Allah knows best.