These tables present national series on strikes and lockouts contained in the ILO's statistical data base, LABORSTA. They represent the official statistics provided by the relevant national agencies to the ILO Bureau of Statistics, for publication in the ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics.

The national agencies are requested to provide the data in conformity with the most up-to-date international statistical guidelines in this field, currently the Resolution concerning statistics of strikes, lockouts and other action due to labour disputes, adopted by the Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (Geneva, 1993). The Resolution gives the following definitions for statistical purposes:

A strike is a temporary work stoppage effected by one or more groups of workers with a view to enforcing or resisting demands or expressing grievances, or supporting other workers in their demands or grievances.

A lockout is a total or partial temporary closure of one or more places of employment, or the hindering of the normal work activities of employees, by one or more employers with a view to enforcing or resisting demands or expressing grievances, or supporting other employers in their demands or grievances.

Workers involved in a strike: Workers directly involved in a strike are those who participated directly by stopping work. Workers indirectly involved in a strike are those employees of the establishments involved, or self-employed workers in the group involved, who did not participate directly by stopping work but who were prevented from working because of the strike.

Workers involved in a lockout: Workers directly involved in a lockout are those employees of the establishments involved who were directly concerned by the labour dispute and who were prevented from working by the lockout. Workers indirectly involved in a lockout are those employees of the establishments involved who were not directly concerned by the labour dispute but who were prevented from working by the lockout.

A labour dispute is a state of disagreement over a particular issue or group of issues over which there is conflict between workers and employers, or about which grievance is expressed by workers or employers, or about which workers or employers support other workers or employers in their demands or grievances.

The national definitions may differ from these, depending on the source of the statistics. In general, they are drawn from the administrative records of conciliation services, services concerned with labour relations, etc. The data may come from several sources, including strike notices, newspaper reports and direct enquiries addressed to employers or to workers’ organizations. The type of source is shown after the country name.

The data cover strikes and lockouts together, as most countries do not distinguish between these two types of action in their statistics. In general, they cover all types of strikes and lockouts and all economic activities, and relate to action in progress during the calendar year, i.e. strikes and lockouts beginning during the year plus those continuing from the previous year. Any differences from the above are indicated in footnotes. If the statistics cover only strikes and lockouts above a certain size (in terms of the number of workers involved, duration or the amount of time not worked, or a combination of two or more of these), the limit is also indicated in a footnote.

The Fifteenth ICLS Resolution recommends that all work stoppages due to a single labour dispute should be counted as one strike or lockout, as long as the period between stoppages is not more than two months. Different criteria are used in some countries to identify a single strike or lockout; e.g. each stoppage in each establishment may be considered to be one strike or lockout. In these cases, the number of strikes and lockouts and the number of workers involved are often higher than they would have been if the international recommendations had been followed, and the total number of workers involved may even exceed the total employment in the economic activity concerned.

In order to provide users with basic information on the sources and methods used in compiling these statistics, and to illustrate the differences between the various national series, methodological descriptions are available wherever possible for each series. These can be accessed by clicking on the type of source given in the tables. Additional information is also provided in the footnotes to the tables.

When using the data, it should be borne in mind that the number of workers exposed to the risk of strikes and lockouts varies between economic activities and countries, and from one period to another, because of differences in the size and composition of employment and other factors. In order to make comparisons between countries, activities and over time, the differences in these numbers need to be taken into account, e.g. by calculating relative measures, such as frequency or severity rates. The most useful of these relates the amount of time not worked because of strikes and lockouts, which is not affected by the criteria used to identify a strike or lockout, to the number of workers in the group covered by the statistics.

If a strike or lockout covers several economic activities, the information about it is usually given under each of the activities involved. As a result, the total number of strikes and lockouts shown for the total (all economic activities together) may be less that the sum for the component activities.

The number of workers involved in strikes and lockouts usually includes those involved indirectly as well as those involved directly.

The number of days not worked as a result of strikes and lockouts is usually measured in terms of the sum of the actual working days during which work would normally have been carried out by each worker involved had there been no stoppage.

The severity rates of strikes and lockouts are generally calculated in terms of the number of days not worked per 1,000 workers. The type of rate is indicated after the country name, as follows:

(1)

per 1,000 employees;

(2)

per 1,000 persons employed;

(3)

other.