Strikes and lockouts down 90% in the last decade, show govt data

Person days lost to industrial disputes see a decline

Air India Express employees called in sick as a mark of protest leading to the cancellation and delay of flights. Before this, employees at Vistara, an airline under the Tata Group, also reported sick leading to more flight cancellations.

These incidents notwithstanding, there was a decrease in the number of incidents of employees expressing dissatisfaction with their employers in recent years, according to an analysis of data from the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Industrial disputes dropped 89.3 per cent to 34 in 2022 compared to 318 a decade ago, according to central and state data. 

In 2011, there were a total of 370 strikes and lockouts. For the past five years, the numbers are provisional but are indicative of a broad trend with fewer than 100 reported each year.

Provisional figures show that 18 disputes, six from the central sphere and 12 from the state sphere, were recorded in the first six months of 2023.

Of these, 11 were in the private sector and 7 in the public sector. Gujarat recorded the highest number of disputes (7), followed by Tamil Nadu (6), Maharashtra and Rajasthan (2 each) and Haryana (1) between January and June last year.

In 2023, 0.2 million person days were lost, with the highest being reported in Tamil Nadu. In the previous year, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Maharashtra together accounted for 0.25 million person days lost.

In 2022, around 200,0000 workers were involved in strikes and lockouts, resulting in a loss of 0.5 million person days. This is significantly lower than 2012, when 1.3 million workers participated leading to a loss of 12.9 million man days.

 

Financial and insurance activities accounted for 40.8 per cent of the time loss, or 0.23 million person days, among the industries.

Manufacturing came next with a 39.6 per cent share in 2022, according to the ministry’s Indian Labour Journal.

The number of strikes and lockouts was higher in other countries, among the nations analysed with the latest data available from the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

Germany was leading with 1,532 strikes and lockouts, followed by Brazil (1,118), the United Kingdom (749), South Africa (87) and Japan (55).

These are higher than disputes in India in 2022, according to the ministry figures.

 

The share of employees who are trade union members is higher in India, according to the latest data available from ILO.  The trade union density rate stands at 19.8 per cent compared to 16.3 per cent in Germany and 13 per cent in Brazil.

However, the UK has a higher rate at 23.4 per cent.