An unprecedented high number of strikes, lost man days and lost wages affected the country’s industrial relations climate during last year, Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir said on Wednesday during his year- end press conference.

According to Nadir, there were 230 strikes, 130,345 lost man days and over $225.3 million in lost wages.   Of the 230 strikes, 226 were initiated by GAWU which is the main representative of sugar workers. He noted that this was in keeping with the recent trend where the sugar workers were the employees who engaged in industrial action most frequently.

The minister noted that “the last quarter of 2009 was an active one for industrial relations”, since “there were no less than five major matters” that needed to be addressed by the Labour Department.  “These included the GuySuCo & GAWU wages and salaries negotiations, RUSAL and the GB&GWU dispute, GPL and GPSU and the GPOC and the GP&TWU.