London
CNN
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United Kingdom lost more working days strikes in 2022 than in any year since 1989, as workers move out in larger numbers between pay rising cost of living,
figures from national statistics office The (ONS) showed on Tuesday that almost 2.5 million working days were lost to industrial action between June and December, the most since 1989 when 4.1 million days were lost.
The ONS said 843,000 working days were lost in December 2022 alone – the highest monthly number since November 2011.
Workers in health care, communications and transportation were among those who walked out run-up to christmas, The Royal College of Nursing, which represents around 500,000 nurses, midwives and health care assistants, held its first strike in December.
have taken strike action pulled in the new year, disrupting schools and public transportation. About five lakh workers including teachers staged the biggest On February 1st, a day of walkout in more than a decade.
With inflation nearing its highest level in four decades, workers are demanding higher wages as they grapple with the cost of living. Many public sector employees have been offered a hike of 4% or 5% for the current financial year, which is lower than the 10.5% annual inflation rate in December. The ONS will publish inflation figures for January on Wednesday.
The UK government has so far refused to award higher pay to public sector workers, arguing that doing so would make the problem of inflation worse. government is instead introducing laws that would make it It is difficult for key workers to strike,
The ONS said on Tuesday that taking into account inflation, increases in average regular pay, which does not include bonuses, fell by 2.5% between October and December 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. This is the biggest decline since records began in 2001.
For public sector workers, the decline in real wages would have been worse because, without adjusting for inflation, their wages grew much less than private sector earnings. The average regular pay increase for the public sector was 4.2% in the last three months of last year compared to the same period in 2021, versus a 7.3% increase for the private sector.
The ONS said private sector wage growth was its strongest outside the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
“While there is still a large gap between income growth in the public and private sectors, it has narrowed slightly in the latest period,” Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, said in a statement. “Overall, payments, however, continue to be outpaced by rising prices.”
a separate survey A study published on Monday by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found UK employers expect to give employees an average pay rise of 5% this year, the most in 11 years.
The CIPD said, “However, the average predicted public sector wage increase of 2% pales in comparison to the 5% expected in the private sector, providing context for ongoing discontent and strikes among key public sector workers. ”