§ Mr. John Mooreasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish in theOfficial Report a table showing (a) the number of days lost through strikes in the Post Office and (b) the number of days lost through absenteeism in the Post Office for each year since 1964.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldThe Post Office tells me that the number of days recorded as lost due to strikes throughout the Post Office in each calendar year is as follows:
Parts of a day are combined to produce the equivalent number of full days.
1964 … … … … Nil 1965 … … … … 3,780 1966 … … … … Nil 1967 … … … … 120 1968 … … … … 7,946 1969 … … … … 252,820 1970 … … … … 45,407 1971 … … … … 6,235,663 1972 … … … … 470 1973 … … … … 36,454 1974 … … … … 4,488 1975 … … … … 3,347 The incidence of absenteeism in the Post Office does not, in the Post Office's view, justify the expense of keeping records of total days lost on this account.