Collective Bargaining

Trade union GBH has taken the initiative for a Fair Work campaign in the border region Steiermark (Styria). In the region, wage and social dumping are very topical was revealed in 2016 by a study. Together with the regional authorities, GBH has opened a service and advice centre for workers, mainly coming from Slovenia. Workers will receive information and advice in their mother tongue about the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’. The idea behind it is to force foreign companies to comply with the local wages and working conditions. The advice centre will also try to detect underpayment and abusive recruitment practices.

Read on: in German … the study (in German) …

Railway workers protested against the privatisation of the services with a 24-hour strike. The trade unions have stated that they are firmly against the planned transfer of the undertaking to the Italian state operator. ‘Ferrovie Dello Stato’ will receive 100% of the capital of the company for a total of 45 million euro. The government considers the privatisation of the debt-ridden railway company as a great success. The railway workers, in turn, are afraid of mass layoffs.

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The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that, in disputes relating to their employment contracts, air crew members have the option of bringing proceedings before the courts of the place where they perform the essential part of their duties vis-à-vis the employer. Workers of Portuguese, Spanish and Belgian nationality were hired by Ryanair or by Crewlink, then assigned to Ryanair, as cabin crew (air hostesses and stewards). Their contracts designated Charleroi airport as the workers’ ‘home base’. The workers started and ended their working day at Charleroi, and were contractually obliged to reside within an hour of their ‘home base’. Taking the view that Crewlink and Ryanair had to comply with and apply the provisions of Belgian law and that the Belgian courts had jurisdiction to adjudicate on their claims, six employees brought proceedings before the Belgian courts in 2011. The CJEU stated that the concept of ‘home base’ amounts to a significant indicator to determine, in circumstances such as those at issue, the place from which the employee habitually carries out his work.

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The police went on a protest, with the trade unions demanding for police wages to increase from 1 February. According to experts, this will require 70 million euro, which the Ministry does not have. The trade union representing officials from the Ministry of Interior will hold a briefing to the National Assembly asking for efficiency and security. Policemen are also protesting because of the problems in the Fire Departments and the negative trend in the institution, which will lead to even more serious troubles, as well as the lack of real social dialogue in the Ministry of Interior. The briefing will be followed by an official demonstration taken place at the Narodno Sabranie Square.

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After a strike at a vehicle assembly plant of Volkswagen’s AutoEuropa at Palmela, the trade unions and the management started a series of meetings to discuss the shift system. According to the unions the channels of dialogue remained open. Workers oppose a planned move to a new shift system that would involve Saturday working without being paid overtime. The management said that it wants to enter into final and formal negotiations on the working hours with the works council (that is to be elected in October).

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Trade unions representing pilots for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) had announced a ‘strike shock’. However, soon after an agreement could be reached. Union officials had blamed SAS for a deadlock in the bargaining negotiations, claiming they had dropped many of their initial demands and that they merely were fighting to uphold a ‘defensible’ level of security. The pilots have been calling for pay hikes and more weekends off that SAS management claims will raise costs by 25 percent. In a joint statement the trade unions said that the agreement was good enough to recommend it to the members. The agreement ensures full-time contracts be given to pilots, leave can be taken during school holidays, and a six percent pay increase over three years.

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Trade union confederation UGT has created a web-based application for platform workers. It is a specific site that can be contacted and consulted. The initiative is organised with affiliates of UGT that work on digital platforms. In collaboration with the union, they created the platform as a way to achieve real social balance and justice. The initiative is meant to halt practices of labour exploitation and precariousness.

Read on: the platform (in Spanish) …

The 2007 Laval judgement made it necessary to define which of the elements of remuneration in different collective agreements are included in ‘minimum rates of pay’, as defined in the directive on the posting of workers. In that judgment, the Court of Justice of the EU established that a member state cannot force foreign companies to pay their posted workers more than this minimum. It took the construction union (Byggnads) and the employers in construction nearly ten years to get to an agreement. The lowest hourly wage for posted workers will be slightly higher than the ‘basic salary’ that is laid down in the collective agreement for the construction sector. According to the deal these conditions should also apply as special labour law contract performance conditions in public procurement.

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Over 24,000 foreigners were active on the labour market in June and their numbers increased by 17 percent over the last 12 months. Foreign labour has prevented a wage drift and driven economic growth forward. There is a persistent shortage of labour. The stress on the labour market is peaking and 1,000 more foreign workers will be needed to meet demand.

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Following an agreement in the Socio-Economic Council the statutory hourly minimum wage will increase from 130 to 143 dinars (1.08 to 1.19 euro). Companies were promised that gross salaries would not go up, which, in practice, means that the Socio-Economic Council has to find a way to increase the non-taxable segment of salaries. The council is composed of the government ministers, representatives of trade unions and the representatives of the employers’ organisations. It is estimated that around 350,000 workers earn the monthly minimum salary of 22,800 dinars (190 euro).

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