Collective Bargaining

A Eurofound report explores the working and employment conditions of three of the most common types of platform work in Europe. Based on interviews with platform workers, the physical and social environment of platform work, autonomy, employment status and access to social protection, and earnings and taxation are assessed. A comparative analysis of the regulatory frameworks applying to platform work in 18 EU Member States accompanies this review. It looks into workers’ employment status, the formal relationships between clients, workers and platforms, and the organisation and representation of workers and platforms. Key findings include that European countries do not regulate the employment status of platform workers. Although the workers have limited control over their working time and the organisation of their work, they are often considered as self-employed and therefore lack social protection.

Read on: in English … The report: in English …

In a second round of negotiations, trade union IG BCE and employers agreed on a collective bargaining agreement for RHZ Handwerks-Zentrum GmbH's employees. Income will increase by three percent from January 1, 2019, and by two percent from October 1, 2019. Furthermore, members of the IG-BCE union receive a one-time payment of 300 euro in January 2019, trainees receive 150 euro.

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A new report that examines the working environment over the past 25 years, that was carried out by trade union LO, shows reduced self-control, increased stress and greater vulnerability to environmental risks. Parts of the working environment deteriorated rather than improved over the past 25 years. Access to occupational health care decreased and sexual harassment increased. Women are more likely to experience work related stress and sexual harassment while insecure employment forms are also negatively linked with the quality of the working environment.

Read on: in Swedish … The report: in Swedish …

In recent years, one of the world’s largest retailers, the Swedish based H&M signed a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with global trade union IndustriALL. And in November 2013, H&M announced that all H&M’s strategic suppliers should have pay structures in place to pay a fair living wage by 2018. However, new research by the Clean Clothes Campaign reveals that many workers making H&M’s clothes live below the poverty line, despite H&M’s promise of a living wage, and despite the brand’s recent deceptive claims of progress. Interviewed workers in India and Turkey earn about a third and in Cambodia less than one-half of the estimated living wage. In Bulgaria interviewed workers’ salary at H&M’s ‘gold supplier’ is not even 10% of what would be required for workers and their families to have decent lives.

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Over 60,000 public servants who have been on lower pay rates since 2011 are set to receive pay increases worth on average €3,300 under proposals published by the Government. According to the minister of finance, the deal delivers a fair and affordable resolution. However, he warned unions that only remaining within the current public service pay agreement would benefit. The first increase is in March 2019, and the second in 2020. Workers who have been on lower pay for longest will see a double jump in March 2019. The unions stressed that any payments under these proposals constitute restoration, rather than wage increases. Their executives will consider the deal and decide whether to recommend it to members when they ballot.

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The trade union Filcams Cgil, Fisascat Cisl and Uiltucs concluded a company agreement with the fashion chain H & M. The deal involves more than 5,000 workers, working at over 150 H & M, Cos e & Other stories spread over 17 regions. The unions see this as a result of the offers the workers delivered to the consolidation of the fast fashion business model, after the collective redundancy procedure initiated at national level in May 2017 and the closure of some stores.

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Housekeepers and valets at the Hotel Be Live Experience in Lanzarote (Canary Islands) ended their ongoing industrial action on 6 September with a vote in favour of a pre-agreement that establishes a negotiated framework for reducing the intolerable workload on housekeepers, guarantees more hours to valets and establishes more permanent positions. The pre-agreement is to take effect immediately, failing which the strike committee is empowered to resume industrial action.

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Teachers have been acting against government proposals that include reduction in the off-class hours for the class supervisor from two to one and a reduction in the teaching periods (see our July/ August newsletter). Teachers' union leaders decided to strike action because of rash decisions harming the quality of education and called out a 48-hour strike that affected thousands of students. Unions now seem to have accepted a proposal by opposition party Diko for an interim deal with the government to put an end to the crisis in public education. It remains unclear if the government will also go along with this proposal.

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According to the Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion ESDE Quarterly Review, the EU's economy continued its expansion in the first half of 2018, yet slightly less dynamically than in 2017. Since the beginning of 2018, the pace of economic growth has moderated, and most recent survey indicators point to lower sentiment and higher uncertainty. Section 5 informs about the growth of real gross disposable household. In the first quarter of 2018 this growth reached 2.4 %, according to latest available estimates. In the following section (6) data on labour productivity and labour costs are provided. Nominal compensation per employee has been growing at a moderate from the first quarter of 2017.

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Some 20.000 people participated in a protest supporting gender wage equality. Although gender equality is part of the country’s constitution, women on average still earn 20% less than their male colleagues. Organisers of the protest warned that women are prepared to go on strike if parliamentarians do not fix the pay gap. The protest was organised while parliament was debating an amendment aimed at imposing more oversight over wage distribution at large companies.

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