Information released today by the Central Statistics Office show that two disputes during the first quarter of 2013 resulted in 228 days of work being lost.
The strikes were by the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union at St James’s Hospital and an unofficial dispute by SIPTU workers at Roadstone Wood quarry at Fortunestown, Dublin.
They involved 107 workers, combined.
Although the numbers of days lost are only slightly up on 2012, they are drastically down from the first quarters of 2011 and 2010, when there were over 2,500 and 4,000 days lost respectively.
The CSO calculates the amount of days lost by "multiplying the number of persons involved by the number of normal working days during which they were involved in the dispute."
These figures do not include the recent National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) strike by Bus Eireann workers.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said today that a further strike by the bus workers would be preferable instead of anything but a long-term agreement.
SIPTU are holding a ballot tomorrow for Dublin Bus and Irish Rail workers on whether or not to join the strike, which is due to resume tomorrow unless an agreement is reached.
