Collective Bargaining

More than 90% of staff at Systems Operator Northern Ireland (Soni) voted in favour of industrial action, including strike, if the pay dispute with their employers is not resolved. The possible strike threatens to disrupt electricity supplies to homes and businesses in Northern Ireland from next month. Soni has been part of the State-owned Eirgrid group since 2009. According to trade union Prospects the union was willing to continue talks but it argued that it required a more realistic approach from the company for such negotiations to be fruitful.

Read on: in English …

The national workforce benefits from the highest hourly rate of compensation of any region in the European Union, alongside Brussels. It came out on top of an EU ranking, with workers clocking up 44 euro an hour of pay and benefits in 2016 on average. It was also far above the EU average of 23 euro per hour. The latest figures from the European Union’s statistical office Eurostat include wages, salaries and employer’s social contributions. In contrast, workers were paid below 4 euro per hour in three regions in Bulgaria (Severe tsentralen, Severozapaden and Yuzhen tsentralen), and one region of Romania (Nord-Est).

Read on: in English …

Workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s Pernis refinery will organise industrial action if Shell does not meet their demands for a pay raise. FNV and CNV trade unions are demanding a 5% wage hike per year but so far Shell is only offering a 2.5% wage hike for 2019 and a 2% wage hike for 2020. The current collective agreement has expired 1 March 2019. Both trade unions stated that the workers at refinery will determine the shape and timing of possible actions at the beginning of next week.

Read on: in English …

The country’s hotel industry is facing severe labour shortages but on the reason behind the shortages opinions differ. According to employers in the sector there simply aren’t enough workers that can and are willing to work in the sector. They urge government to relax current regulations that prevent foreign non-EU college students from working on the island in the touristic season. The trade unions, on the other hand, have a different view on the matter. They accuse employers of willingly deregulating labour relations in order to keep the costs as low as possible. According to the unions the solution for the labour shortages lies in the hands of the employers. If they were willing to pay decent wages and offer normal working conditions more people would apply for jobs in the hotel sector.

Read on: in English …

The Industrial Union accuses Lapwall, a company that has 3 factories in the country that produce prefabricated wooden wall, floor and roof elements, of discriminating on the grounds of union activity. According to the Industrial Union a 500 euro company bonus is paid to employees who leave the union, do not participate in strikes or do not put in for sick leave during the year. Therefore the union has declared an embargo on the company. The embargo is a legal measure in Finland which can be used when a company does not belong to the employers' association. With the embargo the employment office must inform jobseekers about the industrial dispute, and they are not allowed to break the embargo by guiding jobseekers in the company. The Industrial Union wants to negotiate with Lapwall but thus far the company has not shown any willingness to do that.

Read on: in English …

The workers of the sanitary transport of Galicia with 80.81% against 14.89% voted in favour of a new preliminary collective agreement with the employer's association. Following the vote they suspended a planned indefinite strike action that was scheduled to begin this month. Trade unions UGT, CIG and CC OO however warn that with the approval of this pre-agreement strike actions are only suspended and not called off in total. Whether new strike actions are to be expected is depended on the next part of the negotiations on the new collective agreement

Read on: in Spanish …

French customs officers are in their third week of industrial action. The custom officers are not on strike but are carrying out longer and more thorough checks than normally which leads to severe delays and train cancellations. Besides a long standing conflict over working conditions they resorted to industrial action to warn that they are not ready for Brexit because there has not been sufficient preparation for a no-deal Brexit. It remains unclear how long the industrial action will continue to affect train traffic between the UK and France.

Read on: in English …

The Elite Language Centre recently conducted an online survey to learn more about foreign language use for business purposes. Companies made it clear that the need for foreign workers will very probably increase in the near future, especially for people who speak languages other than Slovak. According to a recent report about every fourth new job position is currently filled by a foreigner. For individuals who seek employee or self-employed status, anecdotal and media-reported evidence indicates that the police has in recent years presented a discouraging obstacle for job seekers and workers. The survey also found that while many companies offer language training for their employees many courses are taught by people who are not suited for the job. There is a significant number of under-qualified teachers being hired at cheap rates by language companies that win contracts by offering the lowest bid. Training should be given more structure, the survey concludes.

Read on: in English …

As negotiations on a pay rise hit a deadlock more than 420 workers of the Electrolux plant in Satu Mare, that produces gas cookers, started a general strike. The workers are also organising a protest march to make their demands clear. The workers asked for a wage increase of 75 euro a month in net terms while company management is offering not even half of the demanded wage increase. The union that represents the workers at Electrolux states that the workers are determined to fight for their wage demands but remain open for further negotiations. According to official data, in 2017 Electrolux Romania SRL had a turnover of 130 million euro.

Read on: in English …

The emergence of non-standard forms of employment has created challenges for decent work, in particular when employment in non-standard arrangements is not voluntary. In 2014, 62% of European workers replied that they were in non-standard employment because they could not find a permanent job. These developments were discussed at a recent Conference "Automation, jobs and the future of work: understanding political and economic consequences" organized by the New Direction Foundation. ILO offers an extensive interview on the future of work in relation to the emergence of non-standard forms of work with a link to some policy recommendations and further reading material.

Read on: in English …