Collective Bargaining

Teachers in Scottish schools are striking over pay, increasing pressure on Scottish ministers to offer public sector workers a pay rise. The strikes followed warnings from the civil service trade union PCS that it would call for strike action unless the government offered an above-inflation salary increase in December’s budget. PCS said that 99% of its members supported holding a strike ballot in a consultative vote last in October, on a record 49% turnout. The union, which has 8,000 members in Scottish government-funded posts, wants UK, Scottish and Welsh ministers to offer significant pay rises in their respective budgets. Trade union NASUWT said teachers at Scottish primary schools would strike in the new year. Its members had not had any pay awards since April 2016 and this year’s award was six months overdue.

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Seventy foreign physicians will receive work permits in 2018. The permits will be given to medical specialists, doctors and dentists. Since the country has joined the European Union, many doctors have left. Getting and keeping physicians to work is problematic, as the monthly wages for physicians are between 1,000 and 1,500 euro, while the wages in Western Europe are two or three times more. The Chamber of Physicians welcomes the decision and says that there is an objective need, referring to the excessive overtime worked by doctors that is by far exceeding the legally permitted working time.

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A survey of trade union confederation FGTB/ABVV among some 15,000 respondents shows that more than half of all workers have serious worries about the future of their job. Moreover, 80,4% thinks that their current work organisation at the workplace will have consequences for their mental and physical health. The highest score is given to work stress (83.7), followed by fatigue (48,7%) and burn-out (47.7%). Two out of five workers indicate that they have serious doubts whether that can continue until their pension. According to the union, the results show that the limits of flexibilization have been reached.

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Due to late payments, several subcontractors of shipyards in Pula and Rijeka have been confronted with financial problems. The risk is that they are no longer able to pay wages to the workers. This is a serious threat for 10,000 jobs. During a meeting between union representatives, shipyards’ management and government representatives the fact that the shipbuilding industry is facing numerous problems will be discussed. The shipyards have many outstanding debts to subcontractors and suppliers.

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The trade union confederation LO and employers’ organisation NHO concluded the collective negotiations for a framework agreement (hovedavtalen). The central agreement, that originates from 1935, is the main reference for sectoral agreements and regulations and is reviewed every four years. The agreement affects some 345,000 employees in 12,000 companies and expires in 2021. It does not settle salaries but defines, for instance, the procedures to undertake in cases of disputes and redundancies, and especially provisions related to workers representation. The negotiators made ‘small but significant’ changes to conditions related to the union representative mandates and to rules on the signing of written protocols.

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Plans of automotive manufacturer Opel to harness synergies with its new owner, France’s PSA Group, will neither involve plant closures nor layoffs. Opel has a big engine plant in Szentgotthárd, at the westernmost point of Hungary. However, a spokesman for the local unit confirmed earlier in November that some contract labourers had been let go and that a further reduction in their number was expected in 2017 because of changes to production volumes.

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According to a report, published by NGO Caritas, young people have limited access to minimum income schemes and benefits. Young people have free access to the social protection benefits system, but only if they fall within the restricted access criteria of the various measures. In addition, generally, these minimum income schemes are inadequate to elevate youth to a threshold of decent living. The report also discusses the provisional minimum income measure (entitled SIA – Active Inclusion Support) that was introduced in September 2016.

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NGO Caritas has published a country report on youth poverty online. Incomes and minimum income schemes are inadequate to cover basic living costs for vulnerable young people. There is limited access to education and professional qualifications’ training. In addition, young people experience limited access to minimum income schemes, many of which are highly insufficient. Salary levels often result in in-work poverty and income support through social transfers is insufficient.

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This country report in the frame of the European Project DECOBA analyses the development of the system of industrial relations. State interventionism has posed a serious challenge to the traditional primacy of multi-employer bargaining and has exacerbated an insidious process of segmentation with regard to labour standards and protections. The fragmentation of the employers' organisations raises the problem of so-called ‘pirate’ agreements, signed by ambiguous associations, risks to undermine the whole system, fostering fraudulent strategies and downward contractual dumping. At firm-level, decentralised bargaining has not taken off, and in spite of all the legal and fiscal pushes, coverage remains very limited and strongly linked to their size and unionization. Nevertheless, social dialogue remains fairly lively and reactive, as clearly indicated by the inter-confederal agreements on representativeness and collective bargaining.

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The statistical office INE announced in a press statement its wage data report 2016. The average gross wage in 2016 decreased with 0.8% to a monthly 1,878 euro, compared to 2015. In the lowest wage categories women are overrepresented (40.3% of all women earn less than 1,229 euro, against 20.7% of all men). The monthly average earnings for men reached 2,075 euro (lower than the average in 2012), for women 1,661 euro (with an increase in recent years, starting in 2012). In the wage distribution, the position of temporary workers stays very problematic, with more than 50% of all temporary workers earning less than 1229 euro.

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