13 June 2008
Walkouts by public sector workers are almost entirely responsible for a surge in the number of strike days recorded in the UK last year, official figures have revealed.
The Office for National Statistics figures – which show the number of working days lost to strikes at the highest level since 2002 – were released as Unison prepares to announce the result of a strike ballot of more than 900,000 local government staff at its annual conference in Bournemouth next week.
Unison has already rejected a 2.45% pay offer and could begin sustained industrial action with a two-day strike in July if the ballot result – to be announced on June 20 – is in favour. Unite is also balloting local government members for action, with the result expected a week later.
The ONS figures reveal that the public sector accounted for more than 96% of the 1.04 million strike days recorded in 2007 – up from 87% of an overall total of 754,000 working days lost in 2006. Civil servants and postal workers were among those on the picket lines last year.
Industrial unrest in the public sector is set to continue as unions battle the government's attempts to hold down pay, with teachers and civil servants due to ballot for more strikes in the next few months.
But relief for the government came on June 6 with news that around 450,000 NHS staff, members of Unison, had voted to accept a three-year pay deal worth 8% in total.
Gill Bellord, director of pay, pensions and employment relations at NHS Employers, said she was pleased that Unison and the Royal College of Nursing – the two biggest health unions – had accepted the deal.
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