There were 578 days lost due to industrial disputes in the third quarter, according to data published this morning by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This compares to zero days lost over the same period in 2007. Between July and September there were three disputes involving 34 staff over the period.
For the first nine months of the year there were ten labour disputes with nine firms and 291 staff involved. So far this year 2,782 days have been lost to industrial action.
More than half of the disputes were in the manufacturing centre and 20 per cent in the transport sector.