Namibia

Organization responsible for the series

The Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development is responsible for collecting, compiling and publishing the statistics.

Objectives and users

Not available.

Coverage

Strikes and lockouts

The statistics cover: Lockouts are not included in the statistics.

Minimum threshold None.

Economic activities

No particular branches of economic activity are excluded.

Workers

Workers involved directly and workers involved indirectly, separately. In addition to regular paid employees, including part-time workers, the statistics cover temporary, seasonal and casual workers. Workers laid off or absent on sick leave, annual leave or for other reasons and unpaid family workers are not covered.

No particular occupational groups are excluded.

Geographic areas

Whole country.

Types of data collected

Concepts and definitions

Strike

The refusal or failure in concert by two or more employees of an employer to continue, whether completely or partially, to work or to resume their work or to comply with the terms and conditions of employment applicable to them, or the retardation by them of the progress of work, or the obstruction by them of work with a view to inducing such employer or any other employer to agree to, or to comply with, any demands or proposals which relate to any dispute or to abandon any demand or modification of any such demand.

Lockout

(a) The exclusion by an employer of any number of or all of his or her employees from any premises on or in which work provided by him or her is or has been performed; or (b) the total or partial discontinuance by him or her of his or her business or of the provision of work, which a view to inducing his or her employees or any persons in the employ of any other employer or employers to agree to, or to comply with, any demands or proposals which relate to any dispute or to abandon any demand or modification of any such demand.

Dispute

Any dispute in any industry in relation to any labour matters between (a) on the one hand: (i) one or more registered trade unions; (ii) one or more employees; or (iii) one or more registered trade unions and one or more employees; and (b) on the other hand: (i) one or more registered employers' organizations; (ii) one or more employers; or (iii) one or more registered employers' organizations.

These definitions come from the Labour Act, 1992 (Act 6 of 1992)

Methods of measurement

Strikes and lockouts

The basic unit of measurement used to record a strike is an uninterrupted stoppage due to one labour dispute in one enterprise. Thus, stoppages occurring simultaneously in different establishments of the same enterprise, due to the same labour dispute, are treated as the same strike. Stoppages due to the same dispute but occurring at different times in the same establishment or at different times in different establishments of the same enterprise are treated as separate strikes, as are stoppages in establishments of different enterprises.

Economic units involved

These may be establishments, firms, enterprises or local workplaces. The definitions are to be determined by the Labour Advisory Council.

Workers involved

Two measures of the number of workers involved are collected: the highest number of workers involved at any one time during the strike, and the number of workers involved on the first day of the strike. Part-time workers are counted as individuals on the same basis as full-time workers.

Duration

The duration is measured in calendar days or hours from the date the strike began in the enterprise in question to the date it terminated, without interruption, in that enterprise.

Time not worked

The amount of time not worked is measured in workhours, by ascertaining the total amount of time not worked on each day of the strike and summing these totals. Time not worked is measured for all workers involved, without distinction as to whether they were involved directly or indirectly. The shorter working hours of part-time workers are taken into account in the estimate, but not overtime.

Classifications

The statistics will be classified according to the following, for which the categories will be determined by the Labour Commissioner in conjunction with the Labour Advisory Council:

Reference period and periodicity

The statistics are compiled with reference to each quarter and each year, and are published once a year. They relate only to strikes beginning during the reference period.

Analytical measures

None.

Historical background of the series

Not available.

Documentation

Series available

Not available.

Bibliographic references

Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development: Annual Report.

Data published by the ILO

The number of strikes and lockouts, the number of workers involved and the number of days not worked, by economic activity.

Confidentiality

Not available.

International standards

Not available.

Methods of data collection

There is no legal obligation to report the occurrence of a strike. Strikes are detected through reports in newspapers and other media. The information is collected from the undertakings involved by means of standard forms sent out by the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development.