Collective Bargaining

The government has asked the European Union to tap its SURE unemployment scheme for €28.5 billion after extending furlough support to help the economy withstand the hit from the COVID-19 crisis. On 7 August the government approved a new stimulus package worth €25 billion, setting aside roughly half of that sum to support employment. The government extended temporary layoff schemes for up to 18 weeks, setting conditions and requiring firms not to cut jobs to qualify for state aid.

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The government has pledged more protection to foreign labour as the current situation is described as “unfair to the foreign workers”. A working group is proposing that employers who exploit foreign workers will be fined. According to the working group, the exploitation of foreign labour is not a marginal phenomenon in Finland and indifference to the problem must be stopped.

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For the first time in Spain’s history, the nightlife industry has decided to go on strike. The nightlife venues in Madrid closed temporally voluntarily their doors. These venues are protesting against the measures decreed by the Community of Madrid, which state that hospitality businesses must close at 1:30 a.m.

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Rules for provision of state support will be available to companies whose employees’ paid average monthly wage in 2019 is not lower than € 800 and companies whose tax debts do not exceed € 1,000 on the day of submission of the application. The support (‘single-time grant to compensate wages’) will be provided to businesses equal to 25% of state social insurance contributions paid in 2019. This amount is not allowed to exceed € 800,000.

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Employers are not bound to paying the salary of employees who must quarantine after their return from an orange or a red colour-coded travel zone. According to a labour lawyer’s analysis, an employer can rely on the national employment office, ONEM, to cover their quarantined employee’s salary.

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Many municipalities inform that financial difficulties caused by the coronavirus crisis will force temporary layoffs of staff this autumn. According to the Trade Union of Education (OAJ), such furloughs would also affect teachers in 18 municipalities, as schools reopen next week.

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Norway’s most important annual labour negotiations had to be postponed last spring when the Corona crisis hit and the country shut down. When they finally resumed this week, the talks that set the tone for wage earners all over the country broke down after just an hour.

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The Central Statistical Office (KSH) found that gross wages were € 1,160 in May, 9.4% higher than a year earlier,. In January-May, real wages rose by 5.1%, taking account of an annual CPI of 3.5%.

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The government announced an amendment that would liberalise the labour and remuneration framework for lower crew serving on board of Greek-flagged merchant ships, a long-standing demand by the country's Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS). At present, the current wage scales and other collective bargaining provisions for lower-ranked crew-members, as prescribed in domestic labour law for Greek-flagged vessels, would give way to the lower pay scales which are internationally recognised and applied in collective bargaining agreements.

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The European Investment Advisory Hub, funded by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB), will advise the Municipality of Madrid on a project aiming to improve assistance for vulnerable people residing in temporary accommodation. EIB experts will provide the Municipality of Madrid with a feasibility study on the launch of a social impact bond, an innovative financing solution aimed at enabling vulnerable groups to become independent.

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