Collective Bargaining

In an open letter, a group of CEOs representing some of the country's most prominent companies denounces the expulsion of a number of high-skilled migrant workers. They criticise the migration agency for refusing to extend foreign employees' work permits, leading to expulsion, on controversial grounds. The companies are afraid that the strict rules regarding labour migration will discourage high-skilled workers to leave their homes to come and work in Sweden. The bosses state that the country cannot expect engineers, IT-technicians, and other specialists to leave their countries if they risk expulsion for unpredictable reasons. At the end of 2017, a proposed legal amendment that would have reduced the number of foreign workers deported over technicalities or mistakes in their permits was rejected by Sweden’s Council on Legislation.

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Trade unions of prison guards and judicial guards have prepared letters to the ambassadors of the EU Member States. The reason is that the problems in the sector remain unresolved for years, and the demands of their protests, which last for months, remain outstanding. Workers have organised protests at the Courts of Justice in 10 cities in the country. Recently, the trade unions decided to reject a proposed 5% increase and continue the protest action until the demands were fully met. The unions insist on a 20% increase in wages, a levelling of payments for harsh working conditions with those of police officers and solving staff problems.

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In a blog, the social effects of (uncoordinated) decentralisation of bargaining are treated, referring to labour market reforms, which have fostered decentralised bargaining. Social partners are thereby encouraged to negotiate company-based agreements though the new legislation does not embrace the majority principle of the most representative unions as the ones entitled to negotiate at the decentralised (company) level. The result is an open door in principle for negotiation with organisations of workers that are not necessarily signatory parties in the sectoral (national) negotiation. This has led to ‘pirate’ contracts with salaries that undermine the usually agreed wages. According to the author, uncoordinated decentralisation, particularly if combined with a lack of clear rules regarding the most representative trade unions that negotiates agreements at company level, may reinforce the worsening of working conditions, increase inequality between (and within) companies by fissuring workplaces and thereby generate precariousness for workers.

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Aer Lingus pilots represented by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) voted on 16 February in a ballot in favour of almost 11% pay increases over close to three years. The pilots will see a 4 percent increase from now, 3 per cent backdated to April 2017 and 1 per cent from January 2019. Another 2.9 percent is in return for increased flexibility and productivity.

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The government has announced plans for a voluntary employer-sponsored pension plan into which employees would put a minimum of 2.0% of gross wages and employers would put a minimum of 1.5%. The state would only provide nominal bonuses. The plans are expected to boost the countries savings.

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Although the negotiations on smaller issues are still going on, main collective agreements for the public sector are finally beginning to get shape. After a slow process of bargaining in the municipal and state sector where the unions demand for compensation for the 30% holiday bonus cut was not met, there has been a breakthrough. A one-off payment has now been agreed for employees to compensate for the lost holiday bonus. Some 421,000 municipal employees will receive a payment of 9.2% of their monthly salary.

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Trade unions Sek and Peo initiated a 12-hour work stoppage at Nicosia’s Archbishop Makarios hospital to protest understaffing. Understaffing has been a problem since the beginning of 2017 and is not only putting the employees under pressure but is, according to the unions, also posing health risks to patients. The strike was announced at the end of January. The work stoppage that started at 6.30 am was broken off early when health minister Pamboridis promised to help resolve the problem. After consulting with the finance minister, she said she will propose the cabinet to hire 10 more people.

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The Trade Union of Hungarian Civil Servants and Public Employees (MMKSZ) has led series of smaller protests and industrial action in the public sector in February. MMKSZ started a 5-day strike on 15 February to protest for municipal officials whose income has been frozen. A union spokesperson claimed that despite multiple calls for negotiations the government refused to meet with the union. The strike is supported by the Hungarian Women’s Association. MMKSZ said that over 200 thousand public employees haven’t had a pay rise in ten years and that this resulted in a considerable loss of the purchasing value of wages. The strikes and other actions are meant to ask attention for the unfair treatment of public employees.

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In a meeting with the employment minister on 6 February, trade union OGBL demanded protection and social right for trainees. The number of voluntary traineeships is on the rise but according to the union there is no legal framework whatsoever to protect young people who want to gain work experience. The OGBL demands legislation to protect these trainees, by introducing clear and precise qualitative criteria to be fulfilled in a traineeship and to introduce a guarantee that the traineeship serves an educational purpose for young people. Furthermore, trainee periods should be covered by some sort of social protection, such as including the period in pension calculations, being covered by health insurance and fixing an adequate remuneration for the trainees.

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Primary school teachers are still urging the government to meet their demands for decent salaries and a normal workload. They will continue their so called ‘code red’ actions and have organised a regional strike in the Northern provinces at 14 February. Following earlier protests in June 2017, October 2017 and December 2017 the government promised a few improvements mainly concerning issues around the work load. The demand for decent salaries is not yet been met.

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