The number of days lost to industrial action soared by 89 per cent to 322,000 last year
There were 322,000 working days lost to strike action in 2016, an increase of 89 per cent on the year before.
According to official figures for the year ending December 2016 there were 322,000 days lost from 99 stoppages and 154,000 people took strike action. That compares to 170,000 days lost due to labour disputes in 2015, which 81,000 workers took part in.
Notable walkouts last year included the doctors' strike in April, teachers' industrial action in July and the ongoing dispute on Southern rail.
While train drivers' union Aslef recently agreed a deal with Southern (dependent on a members' referendum), the RMT still remains embroiled in a row over the role of the guard, after fresh talks broke down yesterday.
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Also yesterday, British Airways cabin crew announced four more days of strikes in their pay row, while this morning the RMT announced industrial action on the Tube for next week due to staff displacement.
Working days lost in the UK by industry by thousands (not seasonally adjusted)
However, it's also worth noting that the 2015 number was also the second lowest annual total since records began in 1891. The total days lost for 2016, while a considerable increase on 2015, are still down on 2014's 788,000.
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And it's a steep drop compared to the days of the Miners' Strike in 1984-5 and the Winter of Discontent in the late 1970s, when 27.1m days and 29.5m days were lost respectively. The highest cumulative 12 month drop for working days lost was 32.2m for the 12 months to April 1980.
The ONS notes days lost to industrial disputes are still "at historically low levels" when looking right back to the 1930s.
While the number of stoppages has fallen broadly over the last eight years, the number of working days lost has also remained widely flat, with ONS data reflecting large-scale stoppages have become more common.
From 2006 to 2015, public sector strikes accounted for 85 per cent of all strikes on average.
Tom Kerr Williams, employment law and industrial relations expert at PwC, said:
Public sector strikes often have a higher impact on the number of days lost, but news reports in 2016 often focused on disputes in the private sector.
That is because, in the private sector, a few days lost to industrial action can cause huge turmoil.
A focus on those industries that have the greatest economic impact is likely to reduce the impact of strikes.
He added that tackling discontent "needs a focus by employers on engagement with their employees, both through recognised unions and directly".