Collective Bargaining

Workers organised in trade union Unia and their families demonstrated in front of the Nespresso headquarters in Lausanne. The workers demand respect for their trade union rights and the opening of negotiations on new schedules imposed by management. The imposed new schedules mean more weekend shifts will be added and working weeks will lengthen from 41 to 43 hours. Although half of its staff mandated Unia to represent them, the company still refuses to meet the union to discuss the schedules.

Read on: in French …

The statutory minimum wage law that came into force on 1 January 2015 should protect workers from wage dumping. But practice shows that many companies do not stick to it. A recent study by the Hans Böckler Foundation concludes that in 2016, around 2.2 million employees received less than the minimum wage although they are officially entitled to it.

Read on: in German … The policy brief: in German …

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) presented and overview of the report ‘What effects of industrial relations on convergence in Europe’ earlier this month at a conference in Paris. The study highlights four ways in which industrial relations seem to have contributed to national convergence stories: 1. National social dialogue is found to have contributed to convergence 2. Collective agreements can also be an engine of convergence 3. Industrial relations are found to play a role in mitigating the effects of a crisis 4. Industrial relations increasingly help in tackling new issues and challenges that are relevant for convergence. Besides the main report ‘Convergence in the EU: what role for industrial relations?’ several presentations on specific countries are provided.

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

The Norwegian Union of Journalists (NJ) managed to win on all main demands in the newly negotiated collective agreement. The agreement came to being after 1700 journalist members of NJ at the Norwegian Public Service Broadcasting NRK went on strike after negotiations and mediation did not lead to a collective agreement. Amongst other things the journalists are worried about the position of non-permanent staff and feared that their workload will increase while their pay remains the same.

Read on: in English …

According to a Bloomberg analysis, partly based on the Statistics Sweden's population forecasts for the next 10 years, the country will face severe staffing shortages in the next decade. Especially in the public sector. The public sector alone will need an extra 208,000 employees by 2025 to keep up with growing demand, but only 207,000 workers are projected to join the country’s entire labour force.

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While the responsible minister states that an increase of 18% in teacher salaries will certainly happen from 1 January 2019, trade unions insist that this should happen earlier from October this year. According to statistics the average age of teachers is 55 years. The trade union claim that the reason for the lack of young people working in education is low wages.

Read on: in English …

Basic, the office for social analysis, co-produced a report with the NGO Oxfam France that aims to fuel the public debate on the sharing of wealth. One of the findings of the report is that French companies are paying out the vast bulk of their profits to shareholders, leaving little for investment and even less for employees. In the 2000s companies paid out less than a third of profits in dividends, today it is more than two-thirds. The report shows that firms paid out 15 times as much to shareholders than they did to workers. CEOs' salaries also soared since 2009 to 119 times their employees' average pay, with 54.5% of CEO’s income tied to their company's share price, encouraging them to align their interests with those of the shareholders.

Read on: in English … The report: in French … Press statement: in French …

A study based on the socio-economic panel SOEP reports on the impact of minimum wages on wellbeing. The results show that the minimum wage has significantly positive effects on all considered dimensions of well-being, on average, with an increase in life satisfaction by 0.10 standard deviations (0.15 points on a ten-point Likert scale). Positive effects last at least until one year after the reform. Life satisfaction tends to increase particularly in the region that is overall economically less developed (East Germany).

Read on (report): in German …

Trade union representatives and employers reached an inflation-busting pay rise of roughly 6% for more than 800,000 construction workers, making the agreement the strongest wage deal sealed so far in 2018 in Europe’s biggest economy. Union IG Bau stated that construction workers in West Germany will get a pay hike this year of 5.7 % while wages in East Germany will jump by 6.6 %. Both steps are backdated to 1 May and will last for 26 months. The agreement also includes one-off payments for workers in West Germany of 250 euro in November 2018, 600 euro in June 2019 and a further 250 euro in November 2019. Workers in the East will get a one-off payment of 250 euro in November 2019.

Read on: in German …

Pilots’ union Seplan states that it plans to file a lawsuit against the airline over contracts in Spain and has broken off talks about union recognition. Seplan represents about 500 of 800 Ryanair pilots based in Spain and is in conflict with Ryanair because the airline did not want to allow union members three days a month to carry out union duties despite earlier statements from Ryanair that the company will start to recognise unions. Seplan had previously threatened legal action but suspended it to carry out talks with Ryanair.

Read on: in English …