Chile

Organization responsible for the statistics

The statistics are collected, compiled and published by the Dirección del Trabajo.

Objectives and users

Not available.

Coverage

Strikes and lockouts

The statistics cover: Also included in the statistics are certain arbitration cases where the Labour Inspection has been particularly involved as, for example, in cases concerning workers in public utility services who are not allowed to strike, and whose grievances have to be submitted for compulsory arbitration. In these cases, there is no suspension or interruption of activities and consequently no days not worked. Information relating to the workers involved and the duration of the procedure is obtained directly from the parties concerned.

Unofficial strikes, sympathetic strikes, political or protest strikes, general strikes, rotating or revolving strikes are not included in the statistics, nor are sit-ins, working to rule, go-slows or overtime bans.

Minimum threshold: Duration of at least two hours.

Economic activities

No particular branches of economic activity or sectors are excluded.

Workers

All workers involved in the collective bargaining process (trabajadores involucrados o implicados) are covered. A distinction between workers directly and indirectly involved is not appropriate. In addition to regular paid employees, including part-time workers, the statistics cover workers absent on sick or annual leave, and do not cover temporary, casual or seasonal workers, nor unpaid family workers. Chilean legislation does not include provisions for workers laid off in this context.

No particular occupational groups are excluded.

Geographic areas

Whole country.

Types of data collected

Concepts and definitions

Strike (huelga)

A stage in the process of collective bargaining which enables the workers involved to stop their work on a temporary basis if the reply given by the employer to the draft collective agreement is rejected by the absolute majority of workers, in an individual and secret ballot supervised by a government official.

Lockout

A total or partial closure of the enterprise declared by the employer, once a strike has started. The employer has the right, once a strike has started, to prevent access to all workers to the enterprise, property or establishment on a temporary basis.

The definitions come from the Código de Trabajo.

Methods of measurement

Strikes and lockouts

The basic unit of measurement used to record a strike is the workers' organization involved in collective bargaining, whether this is a trade union within the enterprise or a group of workers who have joined together to bargain collectively. Chilean legislation does not include any provisions regarding the interruption of a strike; the termination of a strike implies the end of the collective bargaining process.

Work stoppages arising from the same case of dispute, occurring at the same time or at different times in different establishments of the same enterprise or in establishments of different enterprises, are counted according to the number of workers' organizations involved in collective bargaining. When collective bargaining is being carried out jointly for all the workers by one organization, the stoppage is considered to be a single strike. If two or more workers' organizations are negotiating separately, a separate strike is counted for each workers' organization involved.

Workers involved

The number of workers involved is counted as the maximum number of workers that took part during the course of the stoppage, even if some workers participated for only part of the duration. Part-time workers are counted as individuals on the same basis as full-time workers.

Time not worked

Time not worked is measured in continuing days of strike.

Classifications

Branch of economic activity

The data are classified by branch of economic activity using the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), 1968.

Reference period and periodicity

The statistics are compiled for periods of a month, six months and a year, and are published for periods of a year. They refer to strikes beginning during the particular reference period only.

Analytical measures

None.

Historical background of the series

Not available.

Documentation

Series available

Not available.

Bibliographic references

Dirección del Trabajo: Memoria anual (annual);

Idem: Anuario de Estadísticas Laborales (annual).

Data published by the ILO

The number of strikes, the number of workers involved and total time not worked, by economic activity.

Confidentiality

Not available.

International standards

Not available.

Methods of data collection

There is no legal obligation to report the occurrence of a strike. When workers request the Ministro de Fe to decide with regard to the last offer made by the employer, they are asked voluntarily to inform the Inspección del Trabajo of the dates when the strike began and ended. In a case of doubt, or if there is a lack of information, an officer from the Inspección del Trabajo investigates the situation by carrying out an inspection.