Collective Bargaining

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Warsaw demanding higher wages, higher minimum wage and better pensions in the public sector. The All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ) organised the protest stating that while the economy is booming wages are so low that many people struggle to make ends meet. The country has seen rapid economic growth but most of the 700000 people employed in the public sector received no pay raises since 2010. Trade union Solidarność called for a 12% pay rise in public sector wages to compensate inflation.

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Uber workers demand a minimum of £5 per delivery. Because the minimum per-delivery rate has been reduced from £4.26 to £3.50 workers resorted to wildcat strike actions. While chanting ‘No money and no food’ motorcyclists blocked the roads outside the Uber headquarter in London for two days. The company said to its couriers that the new fare structure would lead to higher rates ‘at the busiest times and in the busiest places’. However, it would lead to lower pay outside of typical meal times or in quieter areas.

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A governmental report from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy provides an overview of minimum wage enforcement activity by HM Revenue and Customs during 2017/18, following a similar report in 2017 covering activity during 2016/17. In 2017/18, HMRC identified a record £15.6 million of minimum wage arrears for more than 200,000 workers (double the number workers identified in 2016/17). It is the highest number since the National Minimum Wage came into force in 1999. The report also sets a new record for penalties, with £14 million in fines issued by the government to employers. More than 600 employers who were found to underpay their workers the minimum wage were named in 2017-18. This is the largest number in any single year since the start of the HMRC’s programme in 2014.

Read on: in English … Read the Report: in English …

The statistical office ISTAT published 2017 data on households’ income. The national agency said that, while disposable gross income increased 1.6% in nominal terms, this translated into an increase of just 0.5% in terms of purchase power - down from 1.2% in 2016 and 1.3% in 2015. Consumer spending increased by 2.6%, causing a drop of 0.9 of a point of the propensity to save to 7.7%. In a summary of the 2018 report, with data on 2017, it is noted that income inequality and absolute poverty have increased. The latter, according to preliminary estimates in 2017, affects 6.9% of households and 8.3% of residents (from 6.3% and 7.9% in 2016, respectively), almost 1.8 million households and 5 million individuals in absolute terms.

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

Trade union confederation SGB/USS published a blog that criticises the business model of on-line retailers. Especially foreign retailers that do not respect the ordinary arrangements of the domestic supply and logistic put pressure on the wage and working conditions of the involved workers. The statutory minimum wage that has been suggested by the regulator (PostCom) is too low and creates a situation of legalised dumping.

The blog: in German …

Hundreds of protesting airport workers have been detained by the police as thousands of airport construction workers in Istanbul were protesting against poor working and living conditions on the building site. At least 38 workers are said to have died lately in preventable work-related accidents and many more have been badly injured. The protest for safe working conditions and an end to alleged arbitrary dismissals and late pay was broken up by police and gendarmes deploying in riot control vehicles whilst firing tear gas. Unions have long complained about harsh and unsafe working conditions at the airport, but under the state of emergency that was imposed in 2016 and recently lifted in July rights to strike or protest were curtailed.

Read on: in English (1) … in English (2) … Solidarity actions: in English … Union statement: in English…

In an interesting report with background facts, the statistical offices SCB presents new statistics on intragenerational income mobility. The report has sections on mobility in equivalised disposable income, income distribution, inequality and the risk of poverty. The core of the study details the effect of income mobility on income inequality and includes graphs with data on the upward and downward mobility by gender, age, country of birth and level of education.

The report: in English …

The parliament voted to speed up a process to increase the minimum wage next year - a pledge heralded by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in late August. The amendment outlines a timeline for consultations between the government, employers and trade unions on what the increase will be, which will be completed by the end of the year. The new minimum wage will come into force in January 2019.

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A second meeting of the LCGB and the OGBL trade unions before the National Conciliation Office (ONC) as part of the bargaining for the renewal of the collective agreement in construction took place on 19 September 2018. The unions stated that the employers took a step back by returning to their demand for an extension of the flexibility in the building sector and the claim of an increase in the maximum weekly working time.

Read on: in French …

The ILO presents one of the first comparative studies of working conditions on five major micro-task platforms that operate globally. Micro-task platforms are a type of web-based labour platform that provide businesses and other clients with access to a large, flexible workforce for the completion of mostly clerical tasks, that can be completed remotely using a computer with internet connection. The study is based on an ILO survey covering 3,500 workers in 75 countries around the world and other qualitative surveys and analyses the working conditions on these micro-task platforms, including pay rates, work availability and intensity, social protection coverage and work–life balance. One of the major findings of the study is that micro-task platforms are in no way regulated by any government, compensation for this type of platform work is often lower than minimum wages, workers must manage unpredictable income streams and they work without the standard labour protections of an employment relationship.

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