Collective Bargaining

According to a qualitative study sponsored by the Hans Böckler Foundation food suppliers such as Foodora or Deliveroo promise their drivers flexible and self-determined work while in fact there is a sophisticated digital control regime. The study explores the interplay between autonomy and control in the app-based management of food-delivery platforms. The researchers set out to understand how much autonomy is given to food-delivery workers and how platforms attempt to increase their control through technologies. One of the main conclusions of the study is that autonomy promised to the riders is granted to them only when they meet the performance standards set by the companies

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The distribution of wealth is still very uneven. According to data published by the Austrian National bank the richest 1% of the population owns almost 25% of total wealth. And it is noteworthy that the Super rich Austrians are not included in the data. The poorest 50% of the population on the contrary only owns 3,6%. The results of the research contradict the income-based image of Austria as a society of the middle class.

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Workers of the Railway Workers Union İzmir branch went on strike in demand of a 28% wage rise as part of their new collective agreement. After a month of strike actions, the strike was postponed due to a presidential decree. After new rounds of collective bargaining workers and railway management finally reached an agreement. According to the agreement, 449 workers will get a 25% wage rise, amounting to an increase of 700 Turkish Liras in their monthly salaries.

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Although an important part of the workforce is already from abroad employers still ask for more foreign workers. December statistics show that employers mainly searched for builders, cleaners and lorry drivers. Trade unions, meanwhile, are not against the influx of foreign workers but insist that they should not work for lower wages and in worse conditions than Czech citizens.

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Trade unions at state-owned railway infrastructure operator ZSR launched a strike alert because after the expiration of the collective agreement the director general issued a unilateral internal regulation. According to the trade union organisations, the director on his own decided by this regulation to guarantee the benefits he had selected without agreement with his partners.

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Air France and unions representing ground staff have signed a new collective agreement for 2019. The deal will provide for pay increases of 1.8%, as well as money to finance individual bonuses and measures to make the payment of overtime easier. Last year the airline was hit by a series of strikes that had a huge financial impact and even led to the departure of the chief executive. The collective agreement, that was signed with trade unions CFDT, CFE-CGC, FO and UNSA aerien Air France comes in addition to an earlier agreement that was signed in October 2019 to put an end to the industrial unrest.

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In an initial declaration that will now be discussed with the social partners, the forming government has put forward its priorities. One of the priorities is the strengthening of the national economy. Part of the plan to strengthen the economy are an increase in the minimum wage and reforms in the tax system. The forming government wants to establish a transparent tax policy that includes a further transition of the tax burden from labour taxes to indirect taxes and pushing non-taxable minimum closer to the minimum wage.

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Air traffic controllers and their trade unions UNICA, UGL-TA, and Assivolo Quadri went out a four-hour strike on 11 January 2019 to protest the non-renewal of labour contracts and to express their discontent with the air navigation service provider’s (ENUV) new business plan. ENUV’s new business plan calls for a transition to a new high-tech model of remote air traffic control that will require personnel to move to other cities and learn new technologies. According to the unions the new business plan will result in job losses and will have a negative impact on remaining staff. Unions state that they cannot stand behind the ENUV’s plans that demand social sacrifices from their workers, while at the same time the company is paying astronomical dividends to shareholders. Due to the strike actions, that affected Brindisi, Catania, Genoa, Milan, Perugia, Pescara, Rome and Turin airports, hundreds of flights were cancelled.

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According to Airlines for Europe there is a clear increase in the frequency and duration of air traffic controller strikes in Europe, with 30 days of strike in 2018 compared with 24 days in 2017. Last year air traffic increased by 3.8% to a record of 11,011,434 flights. En route delay per flight in 2018 averaged 1.73 minutes—or more than triple the EU-wide performance target 0.5 minutes—and the delay per delayed flight averaged 19 minutes. Eurocontrol data shows that capacity and staffing issues caused 60.4% of en route delays, while weather issues generated 25.3% of the delays while air traffic controller strikes and other disruptive events accounted for 14.3% of the delays.

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In a recently publishes research paper multichannel sequence analysis of labour market positions and incomes is applied to create a typology of careers starting with temporary employment in the Netherlands. The most important research conclusion is that making the distinction between traps and stepping stones only does not fully render justice to the large variety in temporary employment trajectories that is observed in the Dutch labour market: although 29.6% of the careers can be classified as stepping stones and 39.7% as traps, about a quarter (24.7%) of the individuals follow a career that does not fit into the original trap and stepping stone scenarios, because they combine high income security with low employment security or vice versa, or because the permanent contract was not the final outcome in the career.

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