The physical damage to business premises and stocks caused by the social unrest in the two months from January 14th will cost business some TD400m (US$280m), according to Hamadi Ben Sedrine, the head of the employers' association, UTICA. However, ongoing worker absenteeism is proving much more costly. A wave of wildcat strikes and sit-ins by workers in support of demands for higher wages, better conditions and the dismissal of unpopular managers have disrupted economic activity, making it even more unlikely that the jobs and higher standards of living that many people are hoping for will be provided in the short term. Some plants closed during the peak of the unrest and have not reopened; production at plants that have reopened has been disrupted by worker protests. Disruptive worker behaviour virtually shut down the Menzel Bourguiba industrial zone for long periods in March. A sit-in by workers shut down production at JAL, an Italian-owned bootmaker, which has 4,500 employees in four plants in the north-east. The textile workers' union is demanding a 10% increase in wages (employees wanted 15%), but the textile employers' association says the sector cannot afford it. Workers at the Med-Oil company, part of the locally owned Poulina Group, carried out five strikes that have forced the company to agree to a range of demands, including revised working hours, salary increases and reclassified job roles. However, the company has refused the demand to replace the managing director.

In the post-revolutionary chaos, the main trade union federation, UGTT, appears to have lost control of individual unions and is now facing a challenge from another union, the CGTT, which was launched in February. Employers have found it no easier to present a unified front. UTICA, which was once closely associated with the former regime, is seeking to reinvent itself under a new president, but is split by internal quarrels.