DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Quarter		Year ended
		September 2017	December 2017	December 2016	December 2017
Number of disputes
	Commenced in period (no.)	40	46	254	154
	Total (no.)	57	67	259	159
Employees involved
	Newly involved ('000)	6.3	14.7	105.8	65.8
	Total ('000)	8.1	17.1	105.9	66.5
Working days lost ('000)		45.9	36.7	124.5	148.4

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


QUARTERLY ESTIMATES

• In December quarter 2017, there were 67 disputes, 10 greater than in September quarter 2017.
• The number of employees involved in industrial disputes in December quarter 2017 was 17,100, an increase from 8,100 in September quarter 2017.
• There were 36,700 working days lost due to industrial disputation in December quarter 2017, a decrease from 45,900 in September quarter 2017.
• The Coal Mining industry (20,700) had the highest number of workings days lost by industry, accounting for 56% of total working days lost.
• New South Wales (20,900) had the highest number of working days lost of any state or territory in December quarter 2017, accounting for 57% of total working days lost. New South Wales also had the highest number of working days lost per thousand employees (5.9) for the quarter.

YEAR ENDED ESTIMATES

• During the year ended December 2017, there were 159 disputes, 100 fewer than in the year ended December 2016.
• Over the same period, there were 148,400 working days lost, 19% more than in the year ended December 2016 (124,500).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2018	7 June 2018

REVISIONS

Revisions to working days lost per thousand employees series

Working days lost per thousand employees are calculated for a quarterly period by dividing the total number of working days lost in the period by the total number of employees in the Australian labour force in the period (obtained from the ABS Labour Force Survey) and multiplying by 1,000. The quarterly Labour Force estimates (sourced from cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) underwent major rebenchmarking for the November quarter 2017 release. This was due to applying rebased Estimated Residential Population benchmarks based on 2016 Census data. As a result, the Industrial Disputes working days lost per thousand employees time series has been revised from September quarter 2011 onwards. These updates are reflected in Tables 2 and 3 of this release and the associated time series spreadsheets. The separate series of working days lost is not impacted and remains unchanged.

Revisions to June quarter 2017 data

Revisions have been made to the June quarter 2017 data. The data items affected were Total Number of Disputes (Quarter and 12 months ended) commenced and occurred. These revisions are reflected in both Table 1 of this publication and the associated time series spreadsheet.


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