A nationwide strike is happening in France on Thursday in response to plans by President Emmanuel Macron’s authorities to reform the pension system and lift the retirement age. Strikes could proceed past January 19 as France’s largest commerce union has described Thursday as solely a place to begin.
Strikes have been taking place within the UK, too. Nurses went on strike in England in December 2022 for the primary time in 106 years. Rail staff have been on strike in current weeks, and academics and well being staff are planning to strike in February.
Strikes are a major a part of the tradition of working life in Europe. Folks in a number of EU member states together with Spain and Germany went on strike lately, primarily asking for higher pay and dealing situations.
However which international locations have essentially the most strikes in Europe? Is industrial motion extra widespread in some international locations than others? How has the variety of working days misplaced to strikes modified over the past a long time?
Industrial motion is usually measured by “days not labored” or “working days misplaced” as a consequence of strikes or lockouts. The variety of days not labored as a consequence of such motion varies extremely from yr to yr. Thus, traits over time are extra significant than easy comparisons of annual knowledge.
Working days misplaced to strikes throughout Europe
In line with a dataset ready by the European Commerce Union Institute (ETUI), the international locations happening strike essentially the most have seen slight modifications in rating over the past 20 years.
Between 2000 and 2009, the annual common of days not labored as a consequence of strikes per 1,000 staff was the very best in Spain, the place a mean 153 working days had been misplaced. This was adopted by France with 127 days.
Denmark (105 days) ranked third with an annual common of greater than 100 working days misplaced. Belgium and Finland adopted with 70 days every.
Within the UK, solely 28 working days a yr had been misplaced on common in 2000-2009 as a consequence of strikes. In Germany, it was solely 13 days, whereas it was eight days within the Netherlands. A number of international locations reminiscent of Switzerland and Poland noticed fewer than 10 days misplaced.
Between 2010 and 2019, Cyprus misplaced essentially the most working days as a consequence of strikes at an annual common of 275 days. France adopted the island nation on this time interval with 128 misplaced days.
All different international locations for which knowledge had been obtainable noticed fewer than 100 days not labored as a consequence of strikes. Greater than 15 international locations had fewer than 20 misplaced days on this interval, with 18 days within the UK and 17 days in Germany.
The interval of 2020-2021 presents knowledge for less than two years, with no knowledge for some international locations. France (79 days) had the very best annual common misplaced days as a consequence of strikes, adopted by Belgium (57 days), Norway (50 days), and Denmark and Finland (49 days every).
Misplaced days in France, UK, Germany, and Spain as a consequence of strikes
Trying carefully on the final twenty years, ETUI knowledge reveals how the variety of days not labored as a consequence of strikes diverse in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain from yr to yr.
In France, misplaced days per 1,000 staff reached a yearly common of 364 days in 2010. Spain noticed considerably giant numbers of misplaced days within the early 2000s, with 295 days in 2000, one year in 2002, and 304 days in 2004.
The UK and Germany had comparatively fewer misplaced days in comparison with France and Spain within the final twenty years. The best variety of misplaced days in a yr was 57 days in each international locations on this interval.
Days of labor misplaced as a consequence of strikes are declining
Because the above chart signifies for the chosen 4 international locations, working days misplaced as a consequence of strikes are declining.
OECD knowledge evaluating the Nineties and 2008-2018 makes this development very clear. The common numbers of working days misplaced as a consequence of strikes per 1,000 staff fell remarkably throughout these two intervals in lots of international locations.
Spain and Turkey noticed the very best declines in misplaced working days. In Spain, it decreased from 309 days to 76 days. In Turkey, there was a sharper fall from 223 days to 10 days.
Denmark noticed a decline from 169 days to 105 days, which suggests that a tradition of hanging continues to be robust on this nation.
Belgium is an exception to this development. Working days misplaced as a consequence of strikes elevated from 31 days to 98 days on this interval.
Strikes drop within the UK
Common working days misplaced decreased from 30 days to twenty days between the Nineties and 2008-2018 within the UK.
In line with the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics, in 2017 the variety of staff who went on strike within the UK fell to its lowest stage because the Nineties.
Proper to strike and collective bargaining
The best to strike is important in demanding higher pay and dealing situations. Collective bargaining makes staff stronger in negotiations with employers.
The UN’s Worldwide Labour Group (ILO) has knowledge on international locations' collective bargaining protection charges - the share of staff whose pay and dealing situations are lined by a number of collective settlement.
European international locations typically have the very best protection charges on the planet.
In 2020 or the newest obtainable yr, the collective bargaining protection charge was greater than 90 per cent in 5 EU member states. Italy (99 per cent) ranked first, adopted by France and Austria (each 98 per cent). This determine was 52 per cent in Germany and 27 per cent within the UK.
Turkey and Lithuania (each 7 per cent) have the bottom collective bargaining protection charges in Europe.
Worldwide comparability of knowledge
Because the OECD factors out, worldwide comparability of knowledge on strikes is affected by variations in definitions and measurements. The ETUI, ILO, and OECD all present complete details about how their knowledge is collected and what it displays.
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