Collective Bargaining

The World Bank Group and the National Statistical Institute published a report on income and poverty, as a result of the project ‘Mapping poverty in the new EU member states’. The main project objective was to calculate the shares of population at-risk-of poverty at low territorial levels (districts and municipalities). The results of the analysis reveal that there are two concentrations. One of them is in the northwest part of the country and is bordering better off municipalities, while the other one is in the east of the country’s centre. The data on working poor indicate that employment is not, by itself, sufficient to overcome poverty.

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The Constitutional Court ruled that the cabinet decree banning the United Metalworkers’ Union (Birleşik Metal-İş) decision to strike in 2015 is a clear violation of the trade union rights enshrined in the constitution, and that national security was invoked arbitrarily. The Court also ruled the government to pay compensation to Birleşik Metal-İş. The union took the case to the Constitutional Court, after administrative courts and the Council of State did not accept its appeal. According to the country's Constitution, after all ordinary legal remedies are exhausted, ‘everyone may apply to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that one of the fundamental rights and freedoms within the scope of the European Convention on Human Rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution has been violated by public authorities’.

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French commuters that work in Luxembourg earn substantially lower wages than their colleagues coming from other neighbouring countries, according to a report that was published by the Luxembourg statistical office Statec. The office has calculated that, in 2017, French border workers receive about € 10,000 less per year than their Belgian colleagues and almost € 7,000 less than their German counterparts. This difference is explained by the fact that they are overrepresented in lower paid activities.

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A national six-day taxi driver strike to protest unfair competition by platform concurrent Uber ended after the government agreed to pass regulation that will allow the country’s autonomous communities to cap the number of private hire vehicle permits within their cities. Taxi associations have suspended their strike but stated that they are willing to mobilise again to keep up the pressure on the legislator.

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The Latvian Hotels and Restaurants Association is willing to conclude a general collective agreement on the minimum wage for the employees working in the industry, if the finance ministry lowers the value added tax (VAT) rate on food services to 12%. The National Tripartite Cooperation Council, which brings together representatives of the government, entrepreneurs and trade unions, is expected to discuss VAT on food services. It probably can be lowered only on the condition that the caterers stop paying undeclared wages.

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A national newspaper reports on the issue of equal pay stating that women still only receive 83 cents for every euro that a man earn. The labour markets have compartmentalised most occupations by sex: there are men's jobs and there are women's jobs. Almost without exception ‘men's jobs’ are paid better than ‘women's jobs’. For example, a man who drives an industrial machine receives 800 euro per month more than a nurse who has required the same amount of training to do her job.

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A plant of pest control and hygiene company British-owned Rentokil Initial has been ordered to pay a former employee €60,000 after it breached his ‘right to disconnect’ from work outside of office hours. The Supreme Court found it unfair for the worker, to have to ‘permanently leave his telephone on…to respond to requests from his subordinates or customers’ in case of any problems while not at work. The worker was fired in 2011 and took the employer to the worker’s tribunal, asking for compensation for the extra hours ‘on call’. The ruling is the first of its kind since the 2016 law on the right to switch off such electronic devices outside office hours became effective on 1 January 2017.

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The Chambre des Députés, the country’s parliament, approved a new act that introduces a social inclusion income scheme (REVIS). The scheme will replace the current guaranteed minimum income (RMG, Revenu Minimum Garanti). The final text of the act was published on 30 July 2018; the act enters into force in January 2019, with some 20,000 people (4,000 households) affected. The act is to be assessed by 2022.

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Workers in Spain, Germany and Poland coordinated industrial actions at Amazon during a prime day sale. The coordinated industrial actions are the largest that the company has ever seen. At the same time as union members at Amazon Germany and Spain were on strike, their Polish counterparts, who don’t have enough members yet to call a strike under local law, organised work slow-downs. Workers in the UK did not participate in the industrial actions but engaged in protest against Amazon with slogans like ‘We are workers, not robots’.

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Due to new legislation, workers that are employed using more flexible, task-based ‘civil law contracts’ will be entitled to join or form trade unions and to benefit from protection previously reserved only for trade union members. Civil law contracts are not regulated by the Labour Code and are more flexible than conventional employment agreements. Until now, civil law workers were not covered by the Act on Trade Unions.

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