German retailer Lidl announced a pay increase of the company’s over 5,500 employees beginning 1 March. A seller will earn a minimum gross wage of RON 3,061 (658 euro) or a net of RON 1,800 monthly (387 euro), while a commercial worker will earn a gross RON 3,301 (709 euro). The national minimum gross wage stands at RON 1,900 (408 euro) or a net RON 1,162 (249 euro).
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[close]The Icelandic pilots’ union (FÍA) has signed a collective bargaining agreement with Icelandair that is valid until December 31, 2019. In a declaration FÍA stated that their goal was twofold: secure competitive wages for the pilots in an international comparison but at the same time also strengthening the competitiveness of the Icelandair. The agreement will now be presented to the FÍA members who will vote on it.
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[close]On 8 February, Ryanair paid a visit to the Danish Flight Personnel Union (FPU) for a first meeting on the topic of collective agreements for pilots and cabin crew. When Ryanair opened up a base in Denmark in 2015 the company was not interested in agreeing on collective agreements for its local workers. The FPU brought the case before the Labour Court that decided that the union had the right to demand a collective agreement for the workers they represent. Ryanair did not comply with this outcome but instead walked out and closed both its bases. Ryanair changed its position and is now willing to meet the FPU’s demand for negotiating a collective agreement.
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[close]Trade union Ver.di has reached a collective bargaining agreement with the employers for the nationwide 55,000 employees of the general local health insurance funds (AOK). According to the union, the workers will get a 5.6 percent wage raise in two stages. With retroactive effect from January 1, 2018, wages and salaries will rise by three percent and from January 1, 2019 by a further 2.6 percent.
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[close]Airline trade unions are in the process of discussing new collective bargaining agreements at Croatia Airlines. The unions already deferred industrial action in the summer of 2017 to allow for negotiations. Now Croatia airlines is in the process of getting a new management, the unions have agreed with the government that they will not organise any industrial action before the new management is named.
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[close]The three unions covering the Sisak Oil refinery initiated a meeting with the management of Sisak. They wanted to discuss the planned shutdown of several units of the oil refinery. The planned shutdowns might result in the dismissal of up to 40 workers. The unions saw the meeting as a first step in preserving this jobs and demand that workers will be informed on any further decisions.
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[close]Several weeks of striking against the plan of Deliveroo to replace all employees on a contract with ‘self-employed’ workers by the bike riders and trade union FNV has proven to be successful. The government launched a full-scale investigation in the strategy of employing workers on bogus self-employment contracts despite working full time for a company like Uber or Deliveroo. Till now the government has been rather passive in the matter but it has promised, where applicable, to enforce the law in the case of bogus self-employment.
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[close]Several thousand health and social care workers, working in the so called ‘section 39 agencies’ funded by the Department of Health, voted in January in favour of a one-day strike over the failure to restore their pay cuts in line with public servants (see our January Newsletter). But on 9 February, they agreed on suspending the strike for six weeks following an agreement, facilitated by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), to begin a process that will lead to the restoration of pay for thousands of health and social care workers.
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[close]Eurostat came up with data on precarious labour; 2.3% of the workers in the EU had a precarious job in 2016, meaning that the work contract did not exceed a duration of three months. The share of precarious employment has slowly increased over the last 10 years, coming from 2.0% (in 2009) to 2.3% (in 2016). Precarious work contracts are most common in agriculture, forestry and fisheries affecting 8.1% of the employees in the sector. The highest share of precarious employment among the EU Member States was found in Croatia (8.4%), followed by France (4.8%), Spain (4.7%), Poland and Slovenia (both 4.5%).
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[close]In a comment, attention is paid to the fact that more and more people fall outside of the labour market. Some because of ill health; others because of high competency demands or tough job competition; many despite of their desire to participate. It is particularly worrying that an increasing number of young people struggle with finishing their education and finding work. Young people with complex experiences need support in the workplace. In order for work placement to be successful for this group, the author favours well-functioning support services which make sure youngsters get ‘place and train’ and not ‘place and pray’.
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