Emerging Trends in the Types of Conflict and Industrial Sanctions
Shorter but more Intense Strikes
Strikes persist despite a decline in union membership but in different forms. Businesses must invest time and money due to the major interruptions created by increasingly frequent, shorter strikes (Lyydon, 2021). These labour disputes prioritize the harm done to service customers over the number of participants or the number of days lost, making monitoring, analysis, and management of strike activity more challenging. (Clarke, 2023).
Notably, strikes in the UK increased again in 2022 and 2023, evoking the labour unrest of the 1970s. Walkouts are being staged monthly by personnel from various organisations, including instructors, nurses, junior healthcare professionals, and those working on subterranean train systems.
Since the summer of 2022, more days have been lost to work due to labour conflicts. According to Clarke (2023), the number of missing days increased by 83% between June 2022 (93,000) and November 2022 (461,000) to December 2022 (843,000). These strikes have had a significant impact, causing changes to the everyday schedules of both employees and students.
Number of working days lost due to labor disputes in the United Kingdom from January 2022 to May 2023
Use of Injunctions
Employee walkouts, strikes, protests, and legal claims can have unfavorable effects. Thus, employers are increasingly resorting to injunctions to shield their firms from harm (Berryman & McDermott-Berryman. n.d.). Usually, this is done by the employer submitting an injunction application to the High Court prior to the threatened industrial action. Serious consequences may result from a contempt of court ruling for disobeying an injunction. For example, an injunction that was issued by the high court on April 27th, 2023, put an immediate stop to the strike that was being carried out by the National Health Service (RNC, 2023) and prevented the nurses from taking on any further course of action.
