There were fewer work days lost due to strikes last year than at any stage since records began in 1923, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen said yesterday.
At the launch of the annual report of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), the Minster said 7,352 work days were lost in 2006 in 10 strikes, affecting 1,186 workers and 10 firms. There had been 26,670 days lost as a result of 16 industrial disputes in 2005.
Mr Killeen said he would shortly be appointing five additional rights commissioners as set out in the national agreement Towards 2016.
Chief executive of the LRC Kieran Mulvey said the demands on the rights commissioner service had increased exponentially with record levels of referrals last year. Writing in the annual report, he said the number of referrals was expected to reach 10,000 this year.
Mr Mulvey said the remit of the rights commissioner service was "being continuously stretched with new legislation, new interpretations of existing laws, greater complexity surrounding contractual obligations and growing diversity in our working population".
The LRC said 7,179 referrals were made to the rights commissioner service in 2006. These mainly involved payment of wages, general industrial relations issues, hours of work and unfair dismissal.
Mr Mulvey said the conciliation service operated by the LRC secured voluntary agreement in 81 per cent of cases referred to it.
He said pensions had emerged as a significant issue last year, and were likely to continue to play a central role in both government and private-sector business decisions over the next few years.
