The Queensland economy lost almost 20,000 working days to industrial disputes in the first half of this year, accounting for more than half of the entire country’s down-time due to strikes.
The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that Queensland lost 19,800 working days to industrial disputes in the first two quarters of 2024. The national figure 38,700 days.
Western Australia, which had the second worst numbers in the country, lost 7200 days to strikes between January 1 and June 30.
When the statistics were converted to days lost per thousand employees, Queensland still topped the charts with 7.5 days per thousand lost, more than twice the national average at three days lost per thousand employees.
Again, WA was the second worst at 4.8 days lost per thousand employees, across the first half of 2024.
The ABS data released today showed there were 193 disputes across the country in the 2023-24 financial year, with 52 occurring in the June quarter of 2024, up by 48 from the previous quarter.
Across the country 120,000 working days were lost because of industrial disputes in 2023-24, 52,900 more than in the previous year.
