NEW FIGURES RELEASED by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have put recent industrial disputes into sharp focus.
Between July and September this year, three disputes involving 3,362 workers led to 14,270 days of work lost due to industrial action.
This compares to 5,115 days lost between January and March and 1,127 days lost between April and June.
The primary cause of this was the strike by Dublin Bus drivers, which was eventually resolved after a new pay deal was offered.
The vast majority of these lost work days (14,220) were in the transport sector, while 50 workers involved in public administration and defence lost a day’s work each. During the same months last year, not one day was lost due to industrial action.
The number of working days lost was the highest since the start of 2015, when around 27,588 secondary school teachers went on strike.
After Gardaí were offered more favourable terms following the threat of industrial action, many public unions are also seeking better terms for their workers.
This morning, the president of Siptu said on Morning Ireland that the trade union was preparing to ballot 60,000 members for industrial action today.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil yesterday, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams accused the Government of “refusing to engage the problem” of public sector pay, and added that the issue “wasn’t going away.”
You can read the CSO’s latest stats on industrial relations here.
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