§ Sir J. Langford-Holtasked the Minister of Labour what was the total number of unofficial stoppages in 1962 as compared with 1961; and what was the total number of working days lost as a result of these stoppages in each year.
§ Mr. WhitelawThere are difficulties in defining and classifying strikes as official and unofficial. Two thousand, four hundred and forty-nine strikes were reported to our Department during 1962, of which 78 were stated to be official. About 5¾ million days were lost through these strikes, of which about 4 million were lost through strikes stated to be official. This latter figure includes about 3,785,000 days which were lost through three official National one-day stoppages of engineering, shipbuilding workers and railway workers. In 1961, there were 2,686 strikes reported, of which 60 were said to be official. About 3 million days were lost in all, including about 860,000 days lost in those strikes which were said to be official.