Collective Bargaining

Trade union Pro has fought against attempts by employers to make cuts in employment conditions in the paper sector. 3000 of Pro’s members have been on an overtime ban since 9 January 2018. The workers announced to strike a full week starting at 7am on 18 January, 2018, as an attempt to maintain their current employment conditions. Another reason to strike was the proposed measure to take away decision making power from bargaining partners. After the government arbitrated in a mediation, both trade union Pro and the employers’ association, Finnish Forest Industries, approved the mediation proposal of the National Conciliator for the paper sector’s white-collar employees to increase salaries, and all strike actions were immediately cancelled.

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The government has the ambition to make the country the world’s first fossil-fuel free state that will no longer emit greenhouse gases by 2050. This deadline was finally brought forward by five years with the passing of a climate law on 15 June 2017. The country has adopted a positive approach, largely thanks to effective cooperation with the social partners. When faced with restructuring, workers are able to rely on the Job Security Councils, which provide them with support at every level in the retraining process. Thanks to the 70 per cent rate of union membership and the obligation to have at least two unionised employees on the board of directors in all companies with over 25 employees, workers have a real voice in this transition.

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Despite a steady growth of the gross domestic product, the country's wealth – calculated as citizens' net assets as a share of disposable income – remains about the same as it was five years ago. For some, the gains are just enough to make a living, whilst others have consumed more but also accumulated more debt. So far, the benefits of living in the Europe Union's fastest-growing economy does not pay.

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A week-long industrial action by social welfare service employees might well escalate if no progress is registered in collective agreement talks in January 2018. The UĦM Voice of the Workers ordered members at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services to follow directives that included refusing to use means of communication and not to participate in multidisciplinary meetings. These meetings bring together vulnerable clients and professionals such as social workers and psychologists.

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The head of the trade union CGT does not want the country to treat its workers like the UK and US, with zero hours contracts and no protection for the unemployed. He said that the controversial reforms by the current government cut into the power of the trade unions and make it easier for firms to lay off staff. The union leader believes Macron is influenced by the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ model but he does not want to see the same situation in France.

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The mayor of London commissioned research on the Brexit to Cambridge Econometrics. The study ‘Preparing for Brexit’ provides an insight into the local economic impacts of the exit from the EU. The report is the first comprehensive assessment of Brexit across key indicators and sectors at a sub-national level and reveals a spread of impacts under five different scenarios, ranging from a status quo (where the UK remains in the Single Market and Customs Union) to an extreme no-deal (WTO rules) outcome. London is expected to experience a loss of 30,500 people in employment under the ‘softest’ scenario, rising to 87,000 under the ‘hardest’ scenario, by 2030. However, it is not expected to be as negatively affected as the rest of the country.

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The Ryanair management had the idea to select only one union for its negotiations with the country’s workforce. Directly after, three trade unions representing cabin crews, pilots and ground crews called for its members to strike on 10 February to protest against the plans to negotiate working conditions exclusively with one union. Ryanair has said it would negotiate with Anpac, the pilots’ association, but not with other unions representing cabin crews, ground crews and pilots who are not Anpac members. As a reaction to the company’s position the Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl and Uiltrasporti unions said in a statement: ‘There must be a discussion about salaries and safeguards for all of the workers, and not just a portion of them’.

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Preliminary figures released by the country's statistics office show that real wages grew by 5.7% in 2017 compared with 2016. Average gross monthly wages in the economy increased with 66 euro, or 8.5%, to 840 euro and average net monthly wages increased by 58 euro, or 9.6%, to 660 euro. Gross wages increased in all economic activities, especially in wholesale and retail trade (by around 11.1%) and information and communications (by around 10.3%). Economists said that the gross domestic product (GDP) went up by around 3.5% last year from 2016, mainly driven by growing exports and still agile domestic consumption.

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The Cabinet of Ministers approved on 9 January the timetable for increasing teachers' pay, undertaking to gradually increase the minimum monthly wage for educators, making the increase conditional on the results of optimisation of the school network. Under the timetable proposed by the Educations and Science Ministry, the monthly minimum wage for teachers should be raised from 680 to 710 euro from 1 September 2018, with the necessary financing to be provided from the existing budget this year.

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Based on data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH) and National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV), research institute GKI calculated that per capita purchasing power was HUF 1.2 million (3863 euro) on average in 2016. A regional breakdown shows that the poorest settlements were located in southern and northeast Hungary, while the wealthier ones were located in northern Transdanubia and Central Hungary. The range in the settlements surveyed is relatively broad from a level below HUF 0.8 million to above 1.6 million in the wealthiest settlements and some Budapest districts. The data do not match with an earlier calculation by research institute GFK that had calculated a much higher annual average for 2016 (and 2017).

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