HC Deb 28 March 1960 vol 620 cc89-90W
60. Mr. John Hall

asked the Minister of Labour what estimate he has been able to make of the total number of working days lost in 1959 through stoppages not officially recognised by the trade unions concerned.

Mr. Heath

In 1959, a total of 5¼ million working days were lost through strikes of all kinds. Three and a half million days were lost in the official printing and printing ink disputes, and 100,000 in other disputes known to be official; of the remaining 1,650,000 days lost, the bulk were apparently due to unofficial strikes, but accurate information is not available owing to the difficulties of definition.