Collective Bargaining

The World Inequality Report 2018, published by a team of economists, relies on a cutting-edge methodology to measure income and wealth inequality in a systematic and transparent manner. By developing this report, the World Inequality Lab seeks to fill a democratic gap and to equip various actors of society with the necessary facts to engage in informed public debates on inequality. Income inequality has increased in nearly all world regions in recent decades, but at different speeds. The fact that inequality levels are so different among countries, even when countries share similar levels of development, highlights the important roles that national policies and institutions play in shaping inequality.

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Workers at the ABB-plant in Sécheron have formulated an alternative for the planned restructuring and transfer of (part of) the production to Poland. In November 2017, management and labour agreed to work towards an acceptable solution for the planned restructuring that could lead to a loss of 150 jobs. In the alternative proposal, the transfer will take 3 years, instead of the planned 18 months. This prolonged period will be used to create new employment at the ABB-plant and for the retraining of the existing workforce.

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Trade union confederation Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is urging unions in the private sector to seek a minimum pay increase of 3.1% and compensation for what it termed the ‘excessive costs’ of housing, childcare and pensions. The call was published in the ICTU’s Private Sector Bulletin, which cites the improving economic and labour market situation and the increasing costs associated with childcare and housing as some of the reasons for the new pay claim. The ICTU’s private sector committee issued the advisory on pay bargaining for 2018 to member unions in the private sector.

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The parliament passed a new system of work leave for family reasons, from January 2018, with changes to the number of days granted for paternity leave, the care of sick children and marriage. Among the biggest changes are an extension of paternity leave from two days to 10. Twelve weeks are granted for maternity leave – up from eight – while an allowance for days off to care for sick children is to be given in accordance with a child's age. The link below leads to an overview.

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Postal workers went on strike on the Thursday and Friday before Christmas to demand the renationalisation of the company and better working conditions. Trade union (SINDETELCO) handed in a strike notice for 21 and 22 December for the ‘Reversal of the privatisation of CTT’ (Portuguese Post Office).

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Economist Thomas Piketty released a study on wage equality across the globe. His team found wages in Germany were as unequal as before the First World War. The top 10 percent earn 40 percent of overall income, the study found. This proportion has been growing since the middle of the 1990s, according to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), which studied the German data. The bottom 50 percent have lost out significantly in recent years in terms of their cut of the overall income. In the 1960s they earned a third of the total, now that has dropped to 17 percent.

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The most recent survey, based on evaluations by entrepreneurs, who point to progress or decline in individual areas of the business environment, indicates that the business environment is threatened mostly by a lack of labour. The employment situation is thus, that it becomes more difficult to find people who want to work, are able to work and are willing to work for the salaries offered by companies.

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The public-sector federations of CCOO and UGT were marching in Madrid on 14 December to reclaim the rights of public employees lost during the crisis. Since 2010 nearly 350,000 public sector jobs have been lost and those workers that have kept their job have seen a 13% fall in purchasing power. Many other rights linked to training opportunities, maternity leave replacements and equality have also been lost. The trade unions demand real collective negotiations at all levels of the public administration. They also demand a reduction of casual work down to the 8% maximum established in law.

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Trade union confederation LO published the December issue of its bimonthly Newsletter. In this issue a report of a seminar on the ‘Danish model’, the results of a globalisation survey that shows workers to be technology enthusiasts, a critical review of the Budget 2018 that brings cuts in health and safety as well as in education, and new data on the economic development.

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Two researchers from the Labour Institute of the General Confederation of Labour published a critical assessment of the impact of the austerity policy. According to the authors, consolidation plans usually bring with them reductions in public sector wages with negative spill-overs to the wage-setting process in the private sector. This not only suffocates directly consumer spending. As long as private consumption represents an important, if not the most important, determinant of aggregate demand, it also negatively feeds back on employment, ultimately endangering a vicious spiral of depressed consumption, employment and growth. Their plea is to put in place labour protective regulations assuring decent wages and working conditions with a view to operate as a buffer stock against deflation, supporting the level of internal demand and sound financial conditions.

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