DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Quarter		Year ended
		September 2018	December 2018	December 2017	December 2018
Number of disputes
	Commenced in period (no.)	44	53	154	158
	Total (no.)	51	62	159	163
Employees involved
	Newly involved ('000)	13.6	25.2	65.8	56.9
	Total ('000)	13.8	28.4	66.5	57.2
Working days lost ('000)		47.4	30.7	148.4	105.6

Source(s): Industrial Disputes, Australia

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


QUARTERLY ESTIMATES

• In December quarter 2018, there were 62 disputes, 11 greater than in September quarter 2018.
• The number of employees involved in industrial disputes in December quarter 2018 was 28,400, an increase from 13,800 in September quarter 2018.
• There were 30,700 working days lost due to industrial disputation in December quarter 2018, a decrease from 47,400 in September quarter 2018.
• The Construction industry (13,200) had the highest number of working days lost of any industry in December quarter 2018, accounting for 43% of total working days lost. Metal products etc manufacturing had the highest number of working days lost per thousand employees (15.4) for the quarter.
• Victoria (9,100) had the highest number of working days lost of any state or territory in December quarter 2018, accounting for 30% of total working days lost.

YEAR ENDED ESTIMATES

• During the year ended December 2018, there were 163 disputes, 4 greater than in the year ended December 2017.
• Over the same period, there were 105,600 working days lost, 29% fewer than in the year ended December 2017 (148,400).

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2019	6 June 2019

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 2018 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.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.