Wage squeeze threatening era of few strikes, unions warn; junior doctors’ walkout accounted for much of the increase in industrial action
The total number of working days lost to labour disputes nearly doubled in 2016 compared with the year before, figures published today show.
The Office for National Statistics data has revealed that 322,000 days were lost, up 90 per cent from 2015’s 169,600. The number of workers involved also rose to 154,000, up 90 per cent from 81,000.
The NHS junior doctors’ strike was, at least in part, responsible for the rising figures, accounting for 129,000, or roughly 40 per cent, of all working days lost in 2016. The transport and storage industries lost 49,100 working days to labour disputes last year, while 105,400 days were lost in the education sector.
However, 2016 was still the eighth lowest year for days lost to industrial action since records began in 1891. By comparison, 29.5 million working days were lost in 1979 because of widespread strikes during the so-called winter of discontent.
The total number of stoppages also dropped slightly in 2016, going from 106 in 2015 to 101.
However, Frances O’Grady, general secretary at the Trades Union Congress, warned that the UK’s historically low strike levels could be under threat if wages continued to be squeezed. “With the average annual wage still worth £1,000 less than a decade ago, it is not surprising that many strikes are about fair pay. To keep strikes at historic lows, the next government needs to get wages rising. And we need new laws to improve workplace rights and give people more voice at work,” she said.
A CIPD report published earlier this month discovered that employers expect wages to rise by just 1 per cent in the year ahead, marking a three-and-a-half year low for pay expectations. Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Mark Carney recently warned that UK households’ spending power would be squeezed this year as wages fail to keep pace with inflation.
However, although pay disputes have traditionally been a key reason for strike action, only 70,000 working days were lost for this reason in 2016. By comparison, 134,800 days were lost because of disputes about the duration and patterns of working hours.
Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, said strike action was unlikely to rebound dramatically in the near future. “The evidence suggests that we are a long, long way away from the era of the 70s and 80s in industrial dispute,” he said. “We could see an increase year-on-year from time to time but they are from a much lower base.”
Martin Warren, partner and head of labour relations at Eversheds Sutherland, said the historically low levels of striking could be because workers were opting to show their unhappiness in other ways. “It’s much more common these days to be dealing with action short of a strike – for example, the so-called work to rule or removal of goodwill – rather than the traditional strike in industrial disputes,” Warren told People Management. “The reason behind this shift in trade union tactics is primarily financial – employees engaged in such action tend to lose little pay, while pressure is exerted on the employer.”
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