blue flu: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

No, it is a tactical alternative. A strike is an official, declared work stoppage. A 'blue flu' is a coordinated mass calling-in-sick, often used by professions (like police) for whom strikes are illegal or heavily restricted.

While coined for police ('blue' uniforms), the term is sometimes extended humorously or descriptively to other uniformed services (e.g., 'red flu' for firefighters) or even non-uniformed workers in news headlines, but 'sick-out' is the more generic term.

No. Employers may require doctor's notes, suspect coordination, and discipline participants for insubordination or abuse of sick leave if the protest action can be proven.

Both are pressure tactics. 'Work-to-rule' involves following all official rules and procedures exactly, which slows work. 'Blue flu' involves not coming to work at all, under the pretext of illness.

A coordinated sick-out or work stoppage by police officers or other emergency service workers, who call in sick simultaneously as a form of protest while avoiding an official strike, which is often illegal for such personnel.

Blue flu is usually informal, journalistic in register.

Blue flu: in British English it is pronounced /bluː fluː/, and in American English it is pronounced /blu flu/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.