HC Deb 08 November 1971 vol 825 cc86-7W
Mr. Harold Walker

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a revised and up-dated version of the international comparisons of strike figures given on page 95 of the Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations.

Mr. Bryan

This analysis was specially undertaken by the Donovan Commission and I regret that it would cost a disproportionate amount of staff time to bring up to date the information in the first three columns of the table. Up-to-date information for the number of working days lost per 1,000 employees is as follows:

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF STATISTICS RELATING TO STOPPAGES DUE TO INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES IN MINING, MANUFACTURING, CONSTRUCTION AND TRANSPORT
Average Annual Figures for the three years 1967-69 inclusive(1)
Name of Country Number of working days lost per 1,000 employees
United Kingdom 363
Australia 516(2)
Belgium 140(3)
Canada 1,846
Denmark 36(4)
Finland 286
France 315(5)
Federal Republic of Germany 16
Republic of Ireland 1,196
Italy 1,873
Japan 153
Netherlands 6
New Zealand 310
Norway 6
Sweden 10(6)
United States 1,473(7)

Based on information supplied by the International Labour Office.

(1) Because countries adopt different statistical practices, the figures are not strictly comparable in every respect. The most important variation is in the level below which strikes are regarded as too small to be included; some other countries adopt levels lower than the United Kingdom, notably Australia, Canada, Japan, Norway and the United States. Some countries, unlike the United Kingdom, exclude from their statistics workers laid off as a result of stoppages at their place of work. The footnotes which follow record the more important other variations.

(2) Including electricity and gas.

(3) Only preliminary figures are available for 1969.

(4) Manufacturing only.

(5) Average for 1967 and 1969 only; figures not available for 1968.

(6) All industries.

(7) Including electricity, gas, water, sanitary services.