Collective Bargaining

Trade union Vida, the union for on-board personnel, and Lufthansa’s Austrian Airlines started in October 2017 with their bargaining round. The two sides are still miles away from reaching an agreement. The main dispute concerns a pay rise. Austrian Airlines offered an increase in salaries of 2.1% and an additional onetime pay of 1.4%. The works council and the trade union want to raise the wage level to the standard level that is paid in the industry. At Easyjet, for instance, wages are on average 10 to 20% higher both in the cockpit and in the cabin. The ongoing negotiations resulted in a cancellation of multiple flights.

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The annual ETUI report ‘Benchmarking Europe 2018’ examines ‘real wages’, i.e. the value when cost of living is taken into account. It shows that workers in nine EU countries – Italy, UK, Spain, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Finland, Croatia and Cyprus – are earning less in 2017 than they did in 2010. Working people in six of those countries – Italy, UK, Spain, Belgium, Greece and Finland – also earned less in 2017 than they did in 2016. Salaries have tumbled by as much as 20% between 2010 and 2017. Greek workers suffered the biggest loss of real wages with minus 19%.

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After a petition for ‘a dignified’ salary that was signed by nearly 100,000 people and the threat of an all-out cleaners strike at the Mail’s offices in Kensington the cleaners demands have been met: as of 1st April 2018, they will all receive the London Living Wage of 10.20 pound per hour. Before the cleaners were paid the current UK minimum wage of 7.50 pound per hour. In real terms the cleaners have secured a 25% wage increase equating to nearly 500 pounds extra per month per worker, or around 6,000 pounds extra per year.

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The social partners in hospitality negotiate every year about the modification of the minimum wage. This year, the employers blocked proposals to increase the minimum wage. The unions as for arbitration and, as a result, minimum wages will go up with 0.5%, starting 1 April 2018 for ordinary workers and, at the latest, 1 May 2018 for seasonal workers. The monthly minimum wage for unskilled workers is at least 3,435 Swiss Francs (2,919 euro). The joint sectoral committee has published leaflets in different languages.

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Eight years after their last meaningful pay rise, over one million nurses, paramedics, emergency call handlers, hospital porters, scientist and other workers have been offered salary increases of 6.5% to 29% over the next three years, starting as soon as July 2018. If the workers back the deal in forthcoming ballots organised by the 14 unions by which they are represented, all workers receive at least a 6.5% salary increase. The unions will consult members for their views until the end of May and announce the outcome of that by 8 June. If the unions agree then staff will start to receive their rise in July, backdated to April 2018.

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Over one thousand Madrid based Amazon workers went on strike with a two-day walkout demanding better pay and conditions. It was the country’s first ever strike at Amazon. Unions claim that Amazon deliberately blocks salary increases, cuts wages and reduces payments for those working weekends or holidays as part of a new contract agreement. In a statement Amazon Spain claims that the salaries they pay are, in contrary, on the high end. According to unions UGT and CCOO the strike has been a success with 98% of workers observing the work stoppage.

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Multiple threats with strike once more at the Cyprus Cooperative Bank. In the beginning of March there was a dispute over the banks recent sacking of a number of employees. In a ballot, the members of the bank workers’ union Etyk authorised the trade union to take action if necessary. Later in the month, the union threatened with a strike because the union was not informed of the banks plans to seek investors. The union accuses the bank of lacking transparency.

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Workers at Kerry Foods were planning to go on strike over a redundancy dispute. Kerry Foods wants to cut 31 jobs at a plant in Carrickmacross to reduce costs. The over 300 SIPTU union members at the Kerry Food plant reacted by declaring that they would conduct three 24-hour work stoppages. The scheduled strikes were first postponed and now both parties seem to have reached a resolution. The majority of the redundancies will now be taken up by staff at the plant who wish to retire.

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As reported in our February newsletter unions and management of the country’s biggest car maker, Škoda Auto, have been bargaining on wages since the start of 2018. After unsuccessful rounds of negotiations and unions threatening with industrial action Škoda has now proposed an 8.3% hike in wage tariffs from April. Besides the demand for higher wages there is also a dispute around a new shift system aimed at raising production, which is opposed by unions. Negotiations will continue till the end of March. Earlier on, union officials stated that they could call a strike in May if no deal is agreed.

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Following a meeting between the minister and the trade union of prison workers, the government announced that it will increase the wages of prison staff. The government is to provide 7.66 million euro for increases to the salaries of prison workers. The deal was made after weeks of protest and a ‘Europe for us too’ petition, gathering signatures. In reaction to the government’s decision to increase the wages the trade union decided to suspend the protest activities.

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