Working days lost through strikes in 2007 highest for five years
The latest official UK strike figures, complied in June 2008, show that more than one million working days were lost through strike action in 2007. This figure is almost 250,000 days more than in 2006, and the highest amount of working days lost due to strike activity since 2002. More than 95% of the days lost involved industrial action in the public sector. Most disputes were pay related and of short duration.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 142 work stoppages took place in 2007 – lower than the 2006 total of 158 stoppages. Over the longer term, the number of stoppages has fallen sharply since the 1980s when the average annual number amounted to 1,129. The average number in the 1990s was 273 a year.
However, the 2007 total of 1,041,100 working days lost through stoppages was significantly higher than the 2006 total of 754,500 days. The 2007 total is also higher than the average number of working days lost a year in the 1990s (660,000 days), but it is still considerably lower than the average for both the 1980s (7.2 million days) and the 1970s (12.9 million days).
In 2007, 96% of the working days lost through stoppages were lost in the public sector, compared with 87% in 2006. As in previous years, the principal cause of labour disputes in 2007 was pay and pay-related issues.
Most labour disputes were of short duration. Some 46% of stoppages in 2007 lasted just one day, and accounted for 25% of the total working days lost. Two-day and three-day strikes were the next most frequent categories (18% and 11% of stoppages respectively).
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