Nearly 100,000 days have been lost to strike action in Northern Ireland over a three-month “winter of discontent”, according to figures from a senior economist.
And that could soar higher still, given the threat that Translink bus and rail workers could walk out again after rejecting a fresh pay offer.
In January alone, the north’s strike rate was 20 times that of Britain, says Dr Esmond Birnie, senior economist at the Ulster University Business School.
“Evidence suggests that neither the restoration of Stormont nor the promise of around £600 million of public money to fund higher pay has been enough to repair the very troubled state of industrial relations in Northern Ireland,” he said.
The strike rate is defined as the number of days lost in industrial action divided by the total number of people in employment.
November and December in Northern Ireland saw a number of public transport strikes, and then January 18 saw a general strike across much of the region’s public sector.
In November some 8,700 days were lost in Northern Ireland, rising to 12,300 days in December.
January then saw 72,800 days lost to industrial action.
“In GB the total number of days lost in January was 129,800. It means the total number of strike days lost here was more than half that of GB, whereas the total employment in Northern Ireland is only 2.7% of the GB total,” Dr Birnie said.
He added: “Northern Ireland may have been especially strike-prone at the turn of the year, but what we have seen in the most recent months is just a continuation of an earlier trend.
“From June 2022 to September 2023 our strike rate averaged about 70% above that of GB. Data from the ONS only goes only as far as January, but since then we have had, for example, a strike by junior doctors.
“There are real economic and social costs to being in this situation. There is a danger of a pattern of very high strike rates becoming ingrained in our industrial relations (especially public sector industrial relations) system.
“Quite apart from the costs of this to the local community there is the risk of reputational damage - like how Northern Ireland is viewed by outsiders as a location for business activity.
“Militancy can be viral as large pay demands or increases in one sector provoke knock on claims elsewhere in the economy based on actual or supposed ‘comparability’.
“For example, following on from the very high offer now being made by the Education Minister to teachers, further education lecturers are, perhaps understandably questioning their own pay position.
“The Stormont political parties have given the impression that all pay claims and associated strikes are legitimate, and that the answer is always further funding from the UK Government.
“In this, the Executive has created a rod for its own back.”
