11,000 lost work days due to strikes

Strike action concerning four companies led to almost 11,000 individual work days being missed during the third quarter of the year.

Fresh CSO data, published yesterday, showed that a total of 10,914 days were lost to industrial disputes during the three-month period to the end of September. That marked a 36% increase on the 8,014 lost during the preceding quarter and a near 63% jump from the corresponding quarter last year when just 6,718 days were lost in comparison.

The number of individual workers involved also rose, unsurprisingly, with 3,412 missing work during the period, compared to 3,032 for the same period last year and 1,681 for the second quarter of 2014.

Two of the four disputes began in the third quarter, while the other half carried over into the period from the second quarter of the year. The four disputes concerned Irish Rail; Roadstone; construction firm, JJ Rhatigan, and waste management/recycling firm, Greyhound.

Greyhound workers, last month, accepted a settlement package after engaging in a 14-week strike action, over pay levels, which turned into one of the most bitter industrial disputes in recent years. The dispute at JJ Rhatigan concerns the use of sub-contractors.

The latest quarterly CSO figures bring to just over 19,200 the total number of work days lost to industrial action to date this year. That figure compares to 10,363 lost days for the first nine months of 2013.