Collective Bargaining

Nurses and doctors at state hospitals went on a two-hour work stoppage to protest for the authorities’ failure to prevent attacks against them. A representative of the doctors’ union said that the violent incidents against doctors and nurses in hospitals have become a frequent phenomenon and so far, despite own actions and the employer’s announcements, not one step has been made to stop them. Striking nurses and doctors say they are no longer willing to tolerate such violent behaviour against them and claim that the authorities should take the necessary security measures.

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Czechia

The government has approved 10-percent rise in salaries in the public sector and security forces and a 15-percent rise for teachers in regional schools. The wages of the police, firefighters, customs officers, prison wardens and soldiers will increase. Early September, the school workers' union had declared strike alert in protest against the government coalition repeatedly postponing its decision on raising the wages of teachers and other professions in the school sector. The government reacted by the message that decisions were to be made before the end of the month. Due to the government austerity measures, the salaries in the public sector fell by 10% in 2011. In 2010, policemen lost their risk bonuses.

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A Central London employment tribunal has ruled that drivers at Addison Lee are entitled to workers’ rights such as minimum wage and holiday pay. Addison Lee argued that its drivers were self-employed. The drivers, supported by the trade union GMB, were heard by the tribunal in July 2017. They claimed that they deserved basic workers’ rights. Addison Lee has announced appealing the decision. Its drivers very often work very long hours, in excess of a weekly 60 hours, in order to earn enough to cover their basic living costs.

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After the introduction of the statutory minimum wage, trade union NGG, works councils and political actors have continued to criticise the precarious nature of work in the meat processing industry. In 2015, the four big companies along with the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, agreed to improve the working conditions in the meat industry through a voluntary, instead of a regulatory binding, agreement. This study assesses the functioning of the agreement. The positive impact of the voluntary agreement on working conditions seems to be rather limited. There are still considerable gaps in both collective representation (weak organisation on both the employers’ and employees’ sides, small number of collective agreements and only a few works councils) and enforcement of labour rights in the industry.

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For this Briefing Paper, in the frame of the PROMO project, the authors conducted an extensive survey of the literature in industrial relations, political science, economics, legal studies, and sociology dealing with the issues related to the posting of workers in the EU. On the one hand, posted work has created job opportunities for millions and there is some evidence that it is an important way for legitimate employers to send employees abroad for short periods of time. It might enhance the positive integration of the European labour markets and be beneficial to both sending and receiving countries’ economies. On the other hand, most studies in a variety of national contexts indicate that posting has also opened up a segmented pan-European ‘grey market’ for cheap, exploitable workers, avoiding collectively agreed provisions, undermining labour standards and trade union rights, overwhelming national labour rights enforcement bodies.

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Trade union confederation ABVV/FGTB has published its annual socio-economic barometer. The report maps out the detrimental ramifications of government policy on the economy and quality of life and uses figures and statistics to draw up a picture of the state of the country. The union claims that successive governments have demolished the existing social contract between the citizen, business and the government step by step, but that today's centre right administration has speeded matters up. The quality of the new jobs that have been created is simply too low and the country is the only EU state where wages have fallen in real terms cutting spending power.

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The trade unions are planning a demand of 8 to 10% wage increase for private sector workers in 2018. The head of the main trade union group said that the unions demand higher wage increases than in the past due to the improvement in the economic situation. Employers have so far rejected the unions' demand for a raise in wages, with the president of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic calling it ‘pre-election coercion’. The unions stated that the aim is not to damage companies; they will consider the company’s profit, how much is invested, how much goes to the mother company, and how much employees are getting.

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Following two days of strikes by employees of retail chain Tesco, talks on wages and workforce numbers between management and trade unions are set to continue at the beginning of October, with unions promising no further stoppages will occur until then. The management submitted its reaction to wage demands and workforce numbers to the two trade unions representing workers at the company, the Independent Union of Commercial Workers (KDFSZ) and the Trade Union of Commercial Employees (KASZ). It looks as if Tesco accepts the unions’ demands for pay rises and will raise the monthly wages of its lowest-earning employees retroactively from September 1 to a gross HUF 179,000.

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Workers - many of them migrants from Poland and Lithuania - have been on strike since September 8 at the fish processing company Norse Production near Bergen on the west coast. The Norwegian Food and Allied Workers trade union (NNN) is demanding the right to a collective bargaining agreement in the company. The NNN has a long-running dispute with the company over working conditions and the treatment of foreign workers. Most employment contracts provide no secure working hours and workers are threatened with the dismissal if they join the union.

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Developments in Working Life in Europe is part of a series of annual reviews published by Eurofound. It provides an overview of the latest developments in industrial relations and working conditions across the EU and Norway. The review is divided into seven thematic chapters, which provide an overview of the current situation, explore developments at European and national level, and examine particular issues. Section 4 (Developments in national industrial relations 2016) treats the national developments in collective bargaining and the institutional changes in the social dialogue. Section 6 deals with pay inequalities.

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