Collective Bargaining

The announcement of Amazon to introduce bracelets in order to optimise workers’ performance has led to a furious protest. Politicians and unions refer to the early days of capitalism and talk about robotising mankind. In a critical blog, the website Equal Times analyses the current situation in logistics and the background of the dispute at Amazon that led in 2017 to a walk-out. In the global context of easy relocation and falling transport costs, logistics appears to have become the main profit generating factor, exploiting the differences between production costs in the manufacturing countries and end prices in the destination markets. Moreover, recourse to technology, rather than benefitting workers, appears to have increased their workload, judging by the ever-decreasing turnaround times, which in logistics encompasses transportation, packaging, warehousing and the delivery of goods.

Read on: in English … Video: in Italian … The Equal Times blog: in English …

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, visiting Serbia on a work trip expressed his concerns for the safety of journalist in Serbia. Pressure against journalists has increased and led to self-censorship and discouraged journalists from performing their important work. The Commissioner called on the authorities to investigate and prosecute all crimes against journalists. A recent report conducted as part of a project involving Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and the Slavko Curuvija Foundation rang the alarm clock over the pressure that journalists are confronted with. Earlier in February the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) made a statement for the safety of journalists and protection of journalism in Serbia on the platform of the Council of Europe.

Read on: in English (1) … in English (2) … in English (3) …

Workers at meatpacking plant Rakvere are holding on to their demands for a 16% wage increase from 1 February 2018 and an additional 16% increase in basic wage from 1 July 2018 (see our January Newsletter). The trade unions met with heads of HKScan Estonia in a final attempt to negotiate the pay demands of the workers, but negotiations failed. The union stated that the management of HKScan Estonia did not respond to the wage proposal and only repeated what they had said previously. In reaction to the failed negotiations employees of the plant began an open-ended strike. Earlier workers at the Rakvere plant were threatened by their employer to prevent them from going on strike.

Read on: in English (1) … in English (2) … in English (3) …

According to a leader of trade union Cartel-ALFA, the law on trade union representation is so harsh that collective bargaining at national and sector levels is virtually impossible. The result is that only a small number of collective labour agreements at company level could be concluded. The law says trade unions must represent 50%+1 of the total company workforce. If they don’t have this proportion, collective agreements are negotiated by representatives who are usually chosen by the management of the company and are not negotiating in good faith. The labour inspectorate in December said there were 9,000 agreements, but only 2,000 are ‘real’ collective agreements negotiated by local trade unions. The other 7,000 are agreed by undefined ‘employee representatives’.

Read on: in English …

Since the start of 2018, unions and management of the country’s biggest car maker, Škoda Auto, have been bargaining on wages. The unions demand a pay rise of 18 percent and rejected the latest offer of a 15 percent pay hike over the next 27 months. They are not satisfied with the spreading out of the pay raise over such a long period. The unions also reject the additional demand of Škoda management for changing the system of shifts at its flagship plant. The unions also spoke of possible industrial action. The carmaker recorded its best monthly result ever in January 2018.

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An economist of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (CITUB) stated, in reaction to recently released survey data, that 71% of the citizens receive an income below the minimum standard of living. The economist noted that although there is an economic upsurge, the majority of the population does not benefit from it because economic inequality continues to increase. For a year, the standard of living has gone up by between 5% and 7% and average wages by 12%. However, the prices of goods have risen more and this increases inequality between individual social groups. According to research, 27% of the working households receive incomes lower than the poverty line, which is currently BGN 314 and the remaining 45% earn income between the poverty line and the minimum subsistence.

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NGO Gingerbread, working with single parent families, published a report that profiles single parents and assesses how life has changed for the one in four families headed by a single parent in the UK. While progress has been made over the past 100 years to improve the lives of single parent families, from the abolition of the workhouse in 1930 to the repeal of the Bastardy Acts in 1987, the report finds that many single parents are still locked out of a decent standard of living. Single parent employment rates are at a record high and still, a third of children with a working single parent today living in poverty. One of the striking findings is that the number of single parents on zero-hours contracts has increased tenfold over the past ten years, with over 40,000 single parents employed this way – over 3% of employed single parents.

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

The conservative party in government (SVP) announced plans to promote a liberal labour market. Part of the plans is to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Beyond that, the SVP wants to get rid of the ILO-Conventions that the country has ratified with the argument that only international conventions that are backed up by a popular referendum are acceptable. Trade union confederation has started to mobilise against the proposals. The union says that workers can derive several important rights from the ratified conventions: the right to be organised, the right to collective bargaining, equal treatment at the workplace and other fundamental rights. A withdrawal would destroy the protection of workers.

Read on: in German … in French …

Despite higher occupancy and higher room rates the hotel workers’ trade union warned about low pay in the sector, saying that about 60% of hotel staff and 80% of catering workers are struggling by on the minimum wage. The Association of Hoteliers of Portugal (AHP) and the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP) claim that the workers are earning more. The hotel workers’ trade union wants to reopen the process of wage negotiations for the sector that have been on the lock since 2009.

Read on: in English …

Prison officials demand the equalisation of their salaries across the country. Currently, the differences between workers with the same functions can reach up to 700 euro, depending on the prison in which they work. A problem that, according to their trade unions has been there for 6 years without any negotiation on the topic between officials and the General Administration. Therefore, in the absence of dialogue, and in order to make their demands visible, the prison unions CCOO, ACAIP, UGT and CSIF have agreed to hold a large demonstration on 24 February in Madrid, in demand salary improvements. Another point of protest is the lack of personnel in the prisons that led to an increase of the number of attacks on officials.

Read on: in Spanish …