India

Organization responsible for the statistics

The statistics are collected by the state governments and regional labour commissioners (central), and compiled and published by the state governments at the state level and by the Labour Bureau at the All-India level.

Objectives and users

Not available.

Coverage

Strikes and lockouts

The data supplied to the ILO do not include statistics on sympathetic or political strikes or on gheraos (harassment of employers, etc. by workers preventing them from leaving the premises until their claims are granted) which result in work stoppages. The statistics for these types of action are collected and published separately.

Working to rule and overtime bans are excluded.

Minimum threshold At least 10 workers involved.

Economic activities

Industries performing services relating to sovereign functions are excluded, as there is no responsibility for reporting.

Workers

Workers directly involved and workers indirectly involved. In addition to regular paid employees, including part-time workers, the statistics cover temporary, casual and seasonal workers, and unpaid family workers. Workers laid off, or absent on sick leave, annual leave or absent for other reasons are not included.

No particular occupational groups are excluded.

Geographic areas

Not available.

Types of data collected

Concepts and definitions

Strike

A cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry acting in combination, or a concerted refusal, or a refusal under a common understanding, of any number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment.

Lockout

The temporary closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him.

These definitions come from the Industrial Dispute Act 1947.

Methods of measurement

Strikes and lockouts

The basic unit of measurement used to record a strike or lockout is the case of dispute. A strike or lockout that is interrupted and later resumes, still due to the same case of dispute, is treated as a new strike or lockout when it resumes.

If work stoppages due to the same case of dispute occur simultaneously in different establishments of the same enterprise they are considered to be one strike or lockout. Similarly, if stoppages, due to the same case of dispute, occur simultaneously in establishments of different enterprises, they are treated as one strike or lockout; parameters such as industry, sector of ownership, result, method of settlement and affiliation to the central workers' or employers' organization are also kept in mind when deciding whether the stoppage is a single strike or lockout. Stoppages due to the same case of dispute occurring at different times are treated as different strikes or lockouts.

Workers involved

The number of workers involved is the highest number of workers involved at any one time during the strike or lockout. Part-time workers are counted as individuals on the same basis as full-time workers.

Duration

The duration is measured in workdays from the date the strike or lockout began in the first economic unit involved to the date it terminated, uninterrupted, in the last one.

Time not worked

The amount of time not worked is measured in workdays by ascertaining the total amount of time not worked on each day of the strike or lockout, and summing these totals. The shorter working hours of part-time workers are taken into account as follows: the time normally worked by them is divided by the length of a full shift, then multiplied by the number of part-time workers involved to reach an estimate of the number of days not worked by them, for each day. Overtime is not taken into account.

Classifications

Cause of dispute

Outcome of dispute

Method of settlement

Branch of economic activity

The statistics are classified according to the revised National Industrial Classification (NIC), 1987. In the case of a general strike, the strike itself is accounted for in the industry with the highest number of days not worked, but the other information such as the number of workers involved, days not worked, etc. are included in the respective industries involved.

Number of workers involved

Duration

(in workdays)

Time not worked

Information about strikes and lockouts with more than 50,000 days not worked are presented separately.

Reference period and periodicity

The statistics are compiled and published for reference periods of a month, six months and a year. They relate to strikes and lockouts beginning during the particular reference period plus those continuing from the previous period.

Analytical measures

Severity rate for manufacturing, used for analysing industrial relations:

Historical background of the series

Not available.

Documentation

Series available

Not available.

Bibliographic references

Labour Bureau: Indian Labour Journal (monthly); Idem: Indian Labour Statistics (annual); Idem: Indian Labour Year Book (annual); Idem: Hand Book of Labour Statistics (annual); Idem: Annual Review of Industrial Disputes in India (annual).

Data published by the ILO

The number of strikes and lockouts, the number of workers involved and the number of days 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 or lockout. Information is collected on a voluntary basis from the economic units involved, on a standard form or from police records.