Over 250,000 UK Working Days Were Lost to Strikes in April
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – More than 250,000 working days were lost to strikes in April, official figures showed on Tuesday.
The impact of industrial action across the public sector was laid bare in the latest data from the ONS, The Daily Mail reported.
Walkouts cost 257,000 days, with 166,000 staff involved. Since disputes over pay and conditions ramped up in August last year 3.5million days have been lost.
Unions representing civil servants, rail and health workers have been campaigning for wage hikes to keep up with soaring inflation.
Junior doctors are due to walk out for 72 hours from 7am on Wednesday in the ongoing dispute over pay.
Almost all routine or pre-planned care could be impacted in some way, according to Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England's national medical director.
Separate ONS figures showed public sector wages have been rising by 5.6 percent, the highest since 2003.
However, pay is still trailing a long way behind inflation, with ministers warning that bigger settlements will fuel price rises.
Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Paul Nowak said, "Wages are still not keeping up with inflation and family budgets can't take any more pressure."
"It's no wonder workers are reluctantly taking strike action to defend their living standards. They've been backed into a corner and pushed to breaking point," Nowak added.
The ONS said overall wages excluding bonuses were 7.2 percent higher than a year earlier during the three months to April. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 6.9 percent rise on average.
When compared to CPI inflation, total pay was down 3 percent annually on a three month rolling average. Regular pay was falling 3.3 percent on the same basis.
April's jobs data is the first to include the impact of a 9.7 percent rise in the minimum wage, and will be closely analysed by the Bank of England as it tries to judge how lasting an effect Britain's recent spell of double-digit inflation has had.
