Only 5 per cent of all working days lost to strikes in the first quarter of this year were in the private sector, with 95 per cent being lost in the public sector, according to official figures.

The total number of working days lost in the first three months of the year was almost four times the total for the whole of 2005. In the first quarter, 616,000 equivalent work days were lost, compared with 158,000 days for the whole of last year, the lowest on record.