These lost days, the most for 20 years, arose from 149 different labour disputes, compared to only 92 in 2010 and 98 in 2009. Of these disputes nearly 60% came from the public sector and they were responsible for 92% of lost working days.
The private sector also saw an increase, with 110,000 lost days, the highest since 2004.
Despite redundancies and job losses caused by the recession less that 4% of disputes were related to this, whilst 95% involved an element rated to pay.
Over half of the stoppages caused by strike action lasted only one day, with 9.4% lasting 6-10 days and 2% lasting 31-50 days.
Days lost to action had been on the decline since 2007, whilst these new statistics show a reversal in the trend.
