Collective Bargaining

A critical contribution to Social Europe assesses the mainstream idea shared by international economic institutions that collective bargaining should take place at the level of individual companies. The author concludes that what matters for good labour market performance is not whether collective bargaining takes place at company level but whether there is coordination. Employment rates are significantly higher when trade unions and employer federations manage to align the bargaining agendas of the different negotiating parties upon common objectives (Belgium, Nordics, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands). Also striking is that predominantly centralised collective bargaining systems, even if only weakly coordinated, also show relatively better employment outcomes compared to fully decentralised bargaining.

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The Low Pay Commission recommended to the government an increase of the hourly rate of the national minimum wage by 0.25c, from €9.55 to €9.80 per hour. Workers on a 39-hours contract would see their gross wage increase by €9.75 a week under this proposal. The Living Wage Technical Group calculated in June the hourly pay required to afford a socially acceptable standard of living in 2018 by a full-time worker without children at €11.90, an increase of 0.20c per hour on 2017. Trade union confederation ICTU recommends with this argument to align the National Minimum Wage as soon as possible with the Living Wage.

Read on: in English … The Low Wage Commission report: in English … The Living Wage report: in English..

The Women and Equalities Committee, a committee appointed by the House of Commons, published a report on older people and employment. The report concludes that the talents of more than a million people aged over 50 who want to work are being wasted because of discrimination, bias and outdated employment practices. It also concludes that Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission are failing to enforce the law on age discrimination. The report says women tend to be hardest hit by the lack of flexibility offered by companies for older workers when many people over the age of 50 need to reduce their working hours to care for loved ones. It called on the government to introduce a statutory entitlement for five days’ paid leave for carers, and a longer period of unpaid leave, to help older workers balance work with caring.

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Employees of Volkswagen’s plant in Martin are filing a legal action against management, saying that it discriminates against employees at the Martin-based factory by not paying them a monthly 30-euro compensation benefits for transport and accommodation. In contrast, the compensation that is part of the collective agreement is paid at the other Volkswagen’s plants in the country. Modern Trade Union Volkswagen has therefore prepared, in collaboration with employees in the Martin factory, the materials necessary to file a mass action against the company management.

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The Court of Appeal reversed a decision that workers should receive the minimum wage during sleep-ins. It ruled in a case brought by disability charity Mencap that social care workers should be considered to be 'working' only during the hours they spend awake, despite the fact that those required to sleep at the homes of service users must be on-call during the night and are thus prevented from acting as if they were 'off work'. A court had ruled in 2017 that care workers should be paid the national minimum wage for every hour of a sleep-in shift, rather than a flat rate - in effect doubling the cost of a shift to £60. It had said providers should be liable for six years of back-pay to carers. The Court of Appeal reversed this back-pay decision.

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According to trade union Verdi, several thousand Real supermarket workers laid down their work in a strike action to protest against cutting wages of new employees. The direct reason for the strike actions was Real management's decision to put aside existing collective agreements with trade union Verdi. Instead of honouring this collective agreement Real is paying newly hired workers a wage that falls under a collective agreement with the DHV union, which is much cheaper for the company. For those affected, this means that on average they will earn 23% less money

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After a 48-hour strike trade unions and management of the rail authority SNCB/NMBS have reached an agreement which is likely to rule out further industrial action for the summer. The main element of the agreement involves an increase of 6% in purchasing-power payments for train drivers - a formula that allows the SNCB to treat it as a one-off allowance, rather than a change in pay conditions. In return, drivers have agreed to a productivity increase of 2%.

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The management of the German-owned GEA plant has agreed to attend talks with trade unions and local government officials over plans by the company to sell its oil and gas refrigeration division in Castel Maggiore. Workers at the plant, who are members of trade union FIOM-CGIL, went on strike in protest at the proposed sale on 10 July. The union wants to safeguard jobs and production at GEA’s sizeable plant outside the northern city of Bologna. New talks have to lead to written joint terms of reference on how the sale will take place and how employment can be maintained.

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A study by HR consultancy Hudson, compiled from a sample of 755 companies, reveals that wages increased by 3.9% over the period 2017 to 2018, compared to the previous year. In the period 2016 to 2017, wage growth reached an average of 2%. The increase is said to be the most significant in five years. According to Hudson the growth is due ‘to higher index-linking than last year, but also to the percentage that the organisations surveyed have awarded their employees over and above wage indexation, specifically an average of 1.7%’. The increase is due to both economic growth and the increase in the employment rate.

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Trade union LANV formulates in its journal a plea for a work-life balance policy, i.e. the time individuals need for a better allocation between work and other aspects of life. LANV quotes results of a survey carried out by the Liechtenstein-Institut on the necessary family policy, with proposed measures that range from improved parental leave to a more adequate organisation of part-time work and lowering of work pressure.

Read on: in German … The Report: in German…