Database LABOUR DISPUTE RULES AND STRIKES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Declining volume of labour disputes From time to time, the media give the impression of a European economy plagued by labour dis-putes. But this picture is misleading. Europe enjoys a high level of industrial peace which has increased over the last thirty years. Nevertheless, there is a considerable difference between the various countries of the European Union in this respect, as can be seen from the statistics on labour disputes published by the International Labour Office (ILO). As a rule, three indicators are used to describe the severity of a labour dispute: participation, duration and volume. The participation relates the employ-ees taking part in the labour dispute to the number of labour disputes. Within the period from 1971 to 2000, in the twelve EU countries (excludin