3.9 million working days lost to strike action in the UK is highest since the 80s

The number of working days lost to strikes has hit the highest level since the late 1980s.

Some 3.9 million working days have been lost to industrial action in the past year, the highest annual figure since the 4.1m days lost in 1989.

The figure illustrates the scale of public sector unrest that ministers are grappling with, as action has been fuelled by heavily-unionised workers in the NHS, railways, the civil service, Royal Mail, schools and universities.

The figures come days after the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) unveiled its latest round of action, with plans to bring rail chaos across the August bank holiday weekend.

The private sector has suffered fewer effects from walkouts but has not come out unscathed. Recent strike action by staff at both Gatwick and Heathrow airports have disrupted air passengers’ travel plans, leading to long queues and flight cancellations.

Analysis by the Resolution Foundation found that sectors including health, education, the postal services, and railways have been responsible for 96 per cent of all days lost to strike action since 2021.

The think tank said real-terms pay cuts of more than nine per cent in some of these sectors had fuelled the disputes, while high inflation meant average weekly pay for all workers was 4.1 per cent lower in real terms in the three months to May than it was in the same quarter in 2021.

The public sector pay squeeze also appears to have contributed to an increase in vacancies, with those in health, education and public administration 33 per cent higher in March than in December 2019, compared with 23 per cent higher across the rest of the economy, its report said.

Junior doctors’ strike

Last week, it emerged that 16 days of strikes by junior doctors have cost the NHS around £1 billion so far, whilst a record 7.6m people are on the waiting list for care.

However, teachers in all four of England’s education unions voted last month to accept a 6.5 per cent pay rise, prompting them to call off coordinated school strikes in the autumn.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has taken an increasingly defiant stance in the stand-off with unions and last month told doctors and consultants that the recommendations of the independent pay review body were his “final offer”. Doctors union chiefs want a 35 per cent rise.

A million public sector workers including doctors, teachers, prison officers and soldiers will get a salary rise of around six per cent this year after the pay review body recommendations were accepted.

Ministers have attempted to stem the unrest by introducing new laws that would allow them to impose minimum levels of service in sectors deemed essential, while Mr Sunak has also offered more than one million public sector workers, including police and soldiers, rises of around six per cent.

Labour has pledged to repeal the minimum service law if it gets into government, while the Trades Union Congress has vowed to “fight this pernicious legislation tooth and nail”.