Zambia

Organization responsible for the statistics

The statistics are collected, compiled and published by the Department of Labour.

Objectives and users

Not available.

Coverage

Strikes and lockouts

The statistics cover: Action such as working to rule, go-slows, overtime bans and sit-ins are not included.

Minimum threshold None.

Economic activities

The defence forces, police, judiciary, prison staff and Zambia security intelligence services are not covered, because the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act do not apply to them.

Workers

Workers directly involved and workers indirectly involved. In addition to regular paid employees, seasonal workers are also covered. There are very few temporary, casual and part-time workers in Zambia. Workers laid off and workers absent on sick leave, annual leave or for other reasons are also not included.

Geographic areas

Whole country.

Types of data collected

Concepts and definitions

Strike

The cessation of work or withdrawal of labour contrary to the terms and conditions of a contract by a body of persons employed in any undertaking acting in combination or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons who are so employed to continue to work or provide their labour.

Lockout

The closing down 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 as a result of a dispute, and done with a view of compelling those persons, or to aid him, to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment.

These definitions come from the Industrial Relations Act.

Methods of measurement

Strikes and lockouts

The basic unit of measurement used to record a strike or lockout is the case of dispute. The resumption of a strike or lockout that is interrupted but later recommences, still due to the same case of dispute, is treated as the same strike or lockout if the duration of the interruption does not exceed one month.

If work stoppages due to the same case of dispute occur simultaneously in different establishments of the same or different enterprises, they are recorded as one strike or lockout. If work stoppages due to the same case of dispute occur at different times in different establishments of the same or different enterprises, these are also recorded as one strike or lockout, provided the period between stoppages is less than one month.

Workers involved

The number of workers involved refers to the average number of posts temporarily unoccupied on each day as a result of the strike or lockout.

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 in the last one.

Time not worked

Total time not worked, in workdays, is the product of the number of workers involved and the duration.

Classifications

Cause of dispute

Branch of economic activity

The statistics are classified according to the United Nations International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Rev. 2, 1968. General strikes have never occurred, but if such a strike took place, it would be classified according to the industry most affected in terms of the number of workers involved and time not worked.

Reference period and periodicity

The statistics of strikes and lockouts are compiled and published for periods of a month and a year. They refer to strikes and lockouts beginning during the reference period as well as those continuing from the previous period.

Analytical measures

None.

Historical background of the series

Not available.

Documentation

Series available

Not available.

Bibliographic references

Central Statistical Office: Monthly Digest of Statistics.

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. Labour Officers obtain the information about strikes and lockouts from the employers, following reports in any source.