§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what information he has as to the number of strike days lost per 100,000 workers for each year since 1975 in(a) the United- Kingdom, (b) France, (c) West Germany, (d) Italy, (e) the EEC average, (f) the United States of America, (g) Sweden and (h) Japan.
§ Mr. NichollsThe available information for the years 1977 to 1986 is given in the article "International 57W comparisons of industrial stoppages for 1986" published in the Employment Gazette, June 1988, page 335, a copy of which is in the Library. This article also gives a description of the different coverage of the statistics in the various countries. For the data for 1987, the latest available, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Pembroke (Mr. Bennett) on 4 May 1989, Official Report, column 241. Figures for 1975 and 1976 are given in the article "International comparisons of industrial stoppages for 1984" published in the Employment Gazette, July 1986, page 266, a copy of which is in the Library.
EEC average figures would not be meaningful because of the wide variation in the coverage of the industrial dispute figures in member states.