News
41 strikes last year, 104,327 work days lost
The total number of man-days lost to labour strikes reached a ten-year high last year, Central Bank (CBSL) data reveal.
An overall 104,327 man-days were squandered in 41 strikes, the worst tally since 2007.
A man-day or man-day is defined as “an industrial unit of production equal to the work one person can produce in a day.”
The Sunday Times examined CBSL data between 2007 and 2016 (statistics for 2017 are still being compiled) and found labour relations in the private sector took the biggest hit last year. In comparison, 65,655 man-days were lost in 2008 and 82,294 in 2015 when strikes peaked at 51 each.
The 2016 CBSL annual report records an increase of 38.5 percent in the total number of workers involved in strikes, driven mainly by employees of sectors other than plantations. The total number of man-days lost due to strikes increased by 21 percent in the plantation sector and by 61 percent in sectors other than plantations.
There was also a decline in the number of strikes being reported, the CBSL found. “The total number of workers involved in strikes and man-days lost due to strikes increased in 2016, amidst a decline in the total number of strikes reported, indicating deteriorating labour relations,” it said.
The situation has reached such levels that the Ministry of Labour and Trade Union Relations is continuing measures to improve workplace cooperation and industrial harmony in the private sector. But strikes continued into 2017, including across the public sector.
Organised strikes, the number of employees involved in them and the man-days lost in the private sector also increased considerably in 2015 to 51 when compared with the previous year (38). Again, the rise was mostly seen in sectors other than plantations. But the number of man-days lost in the plantation sector was higher than that in other private sector industries.
The situation was starkly different in 2014, during the final leg of the previous regime. That year, workers involved in private sector strikes decreased by 42 percent when compared with the previous year. The number of man-days lost in private sector industries consequently dropped by 53.6 percent in 2014 as against 2013.
“Further, most of these strikes were token strikes caused by short term disagreements with the respective management,” the CBSL recorded. “Therefore, the adverse impact resulted was minimal.”
The number of strikes in the plantation sector did show a spike in 2014. And the number of man-days lost in the plantation sector was higher than that of other private sector industries. The plantation sector has repeatedly experienced labour issues, according to CBSL data.
The lowest number of strikes since 2007 was reported in 2009–there were just eight–followed by 15 strikes (mostly in the plantation sector) in 2010.