Strike pay is a payment made by a trade union to workers who are on strike to help in meeting their basic needs while on strike, often out of a special reserve known as a strike fund. Union workers reason that the availability of strike pay increases their leverage at the bargaining table and actually decreases the probability of a strike, since the employers are aware that their employees have this financial resource available to them if they choose to strike.[1][failed verification] When workers strike, they can also subsist using pre-strike income and savings.[2]
It has also been used in Australian law to mean payments by employers to compensate lost earnings by employees during industrial action.[3] Strike pay, under the usual meaning above, "is relatively uncommon in both Australia and New Zealand" according to Velden et al.[4]
- ^ "The Value of a Strike Fund". www.unitedafa.org. Archived from the original on 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ^ Gennard, John (1981). "The Effects of Strike Activity on Households". British Journal of Industrial Relations. 19 (3): 327–344. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8543.1981.tb01119.x. ISSN 1467-8543.
- ^ Wheelwright, Karen (2013-12-01). "Bearing the Economic Loss of Industrial Action: The Payment of Striking Employees under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)". Deakin Law Review. 18 (2): 292–314. doi:10.21153/dlr2013vol18no2art40. ISSN 1835-9264.
- ^ Velden, Jacobus Hermanus Antonius van der, ed. (2010). Strikes around the world, 1968-2005: case-studies of 15 countries. Amsterdam Edison, NJ: Aksant. p. 179. ISBN 978-90-5260-285-1.