Collective Bargaining

The nurses' and midwives' dispute that centred on pay and staff shortages in the health service and resulted in industrial action (see our February newsletter) is still not over. Last month the labour court issued a recommendation aimed at settling the nurses and midwives dispute and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said there was enough in the recommendation to warrant suspending three days of back-to-back strike action which were due to start the following day. The labour court proposed a new higher paid Enhanced Nurse Practice grade which nurses could access within four years, as well as a significant extension in the entitlement to some valuable allowances. But the costs that lead to 50 million euro for 2019 and 2020 were to be part-funded by cost-offsetting productivity measures in a new contract. Unions argue that these measures would make nursing insecure, rejected the deal and threaten with further industrial action.

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The attack on a tram in Utrecht killing three and wounding several others caused the three organizing union federations to abort the national strike that started successfully in the early morning. Employees of various sectors were striking for better pensions and to freeze the retirement age at 66. The first and most disrupting strike was in public transit early at 6:00 a.m. Public transit employees were however not the only ones performing actions. Employees of the police, fire department, military and ambulance, among others, were driving from across the country to the Malieveld in The Hague at a speed of only a symbolic 66 kilometres per hour. There they would meet other employees such as dockworkers and construction workers. Already tens of thousands of people were in action when the news arrived about the attack on a tram in Utrecht. The attack had nothing to do with the pension action but still all actions were aborted out of respect for the victims.

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Nestle is shutting down its Romanian plant by the end of May 2019 and this means that the current 388 workers will lose their jobs. The workers that will lose their jobs are angry with the companies’ management that refuses to give them the same kind of severance package that workers in other European countries receive when Nestle plants are closed down. The protesting workers are supported by the International Union of Food, Agriculture, Hotels, Restaurants, Catering and Tobacco Workers (IUF) that invited Nestle for an emergency meeting to discuss the topic of a general procedure for severance payment throughout Europe.

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Teachers of all levels of education went on a nationwide strike in demand of higher wages and more investment in education. The teachers believe this to be necessary because the quality of education is under pressure. More than half of primary schools were closed because of the strike. The teachers gathered with 40,000 colleagues on the Malieveld in The Hague. This months’ protests of today are a follow-up of strikes in 2017 and 2018. The strike and manifestation were supported by all layers in education. It was also a union wide protest with the Christian union abstaining from the strike but not the other actions. The main demand iwas an extra investment in education of nearly 4 billion euros for workload reduction and salary improvement. Because salaries are too low there exists a shortage of teachers and hence the workload grows.

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The union of public service workers (MKKSZ) organised a nationwide day of strike action in front of parliament in Budapest in which some 75000 public workers participated. The main demand of the public sector workers is an increase in basic salaries, which have stagnated for 11 years. Lower income workers in the public sector that work fulltime sometimes receive less than 800 euro per month. Beside their demands for higher wages, public sector workers were also protesting the new law that raises the number of possible overtime hours and that, according to the unions, will increase the working day of public sector workers from 8 to 9 hours a day.

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The Sofia Municipality proposes a 10% wage hike for public transport in the city and the reduction of overtime work. With the 10% wage hike salaries will rise to 587.99 euro a month. Furthermore the municipality is planning to improve working conditions. Whether drivers are satisfied with the measures will become clear after the decision of the transport committee.

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According to the Statistical Office the value of export in January 2019 grew 3% compared to the same month last year, whereas the imports increased by 11.5%. The total foreign trade value stood at 2.84 billion euro, an increase of 7.8%. The export to import coverage in January was 71.8% and was lower relative to the same period last year when it was 77.7%. The biggest foreign trade was with the countries with which Serbia has free trade agreements. The European Union member-states make up 61.8% of the total trade reservations.

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After a long struggle (see our February newsletter) workers at Yves Rocher’s Turkish subsidiary Flormar have finally reached a deal with the company. The company agreed to pay out severance payments, notice payments and special compensation equal to 16-months’ salary to 132 dismissed workers, without waiting for the results of the pending union court cases. Another major breakthrough is recognition for rubber union Petrol-Is. If the court rules that the union has sufficient members to be a legal bargaining partner, the company will recognize them as collective bargaining agent. A majority of the workers voted in favour of the deal.

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Eurofound published the quarterly working life developments for the country that focusses on the fourth quarter of 2018. Main points of interest are the new national collective agreement on the basic level of pay for state officials, a proposal regarding quotas for foreign workers, and protest campaigns organised by cultural workers, forensic medical staff and teachers. In order to tackle the problem of remuneration for work in the public sector, the government set up a commission which started work on 6 December. The commission is due to provide parliament with a draft strategy for the sustainable financing of the salaries of public sector employees until 2025. Instruments delivered by the commission are expected to lead to the implementation of a balanced financing system and sustainable changes throughout the public sector.

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Renewal of company-trade union agreement that covers 87 000 workers. After months of negotiating a renewed collective agreement was signed with Fim, Uilm, Fismic, Uglm and the Fiat Framework Association. The new collective agreement covers 87 000 workers in the industry and will be valid in the period 2019-2022. The agreement provides for an increase in contractual remuneration of 2% per year, which means an average increase of 144.5 euro per month, and an increase in the annual bonus linked to the productivity and efficiency objectives.

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