Collective Bargaining

A policy brief with a review of the country’s labour market reforms of the early 2000 reveals that the impact of the reforms is often overstated because they happened to coincide with the end of the country’s decade-long construction bust. The provided data show that the number of citizens listed as having a job has grown by about 15 per cent since the lows in the mid-1990s. But the total number of hours worked is less than 2 per cent higher over the same period and still significantly lower than in the early 1990s. The disconnect between jobs and hours worked went hand in hand with a large increase in the share of Germans at risk of poverty. The author also points out that more than a fifth of the workers are low-paid (wages below two-thirds of the median, or about 10.50 euro an hour as of 2014).

English: http://www.cer.eu/in-the-press/myth-german-jobs-miracle

The policy brief: http://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/pbrief_german_labour …

The OECD published its updated statistical material on unit labour costs, hourly wages and other economic indicators. The monthly Main Economic Indicators (MEI) presents comparative statistics that provide an overview of recent international economic developments for the 35 OECD countries, the euro zone and a number of non-member economies, with separate sections for all the countries.

English: http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/economics …

Court officers have not received any of the agreed benefits and pay-scale adjustments from a deputy registrar’s sectoral collective agreement signed and concluded two months ago. The collective agreement for deputy registrars within the law courts was negotiated between trade union UHM, the Justice Ministry and the court administration. The union is taking action; if no response is given to the union, it will issue a directive to its workers which would see intentional major disruptions, such as workers advised not to answer phones or e-mails, or to do the bare minimum in order to get their message across.

English: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-07-10/local-news ...

Bus drivers of the Flemish public transport company De Lijn suspended their strike actions after an agreement was reached on a pay rise of 1 percent. Trade unions at the transport company had called for strikes on 1, 2 and 3 July. The social unrest was triggered by a wage dispute: workers were promised a pay increase of 1.1 percent. This was even put on paper in a policy agreement but the management only wanted to allow the pay rise together with other measures rejected by the workers’ representatives.

English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/videozone ...

French: http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr …

Dutch: http://www.hln.be/hln/nl ...

Workers of supermarket chain Tesco called for a demonstration on 8 July 2017. Workers planned the demonstration to raise awareness of the labour shortage in the sector, which is becoming a major concern. According to the trade union of commercial employees (KASZ), the only way to overcome this issue is by raising wages. The Tesco management reacted in a press release defending its wage policies in 2017. The company says that both its long-term goal and the main tendency of its wage development policy are the same: to remain among the top three best-paying retail supermarket chains in terms of its wage package as a whole, while concentrating on raising the wages of the lowest earners among its workforce in particular.

English: https://bbj.hu/economy/tesco-workers-eye-strike-if-demo-unsuccessful …

https://bbj.hu/business/tesco-commits-to-double-digit-wage-rises-in-2017 …

HIVA (the Leuven Institute for Labour) reports that many jobs, which were created in the last decade, are often low-quality jobs, with 40% of the new jobs part-time, half of them low-paid, and about half of them temporary. This makes workers more vulnerable. About 40,000 people who managed to find employment over the past 10 years, are still living in poverty. The rate of so-called ‘working poor’ is still among the lowest in the EU, but figures are going up. Moreover, the situation of the unemployed has deteriorated. About 10 years ago, some 30% of those out of work was living in poverty. Nowadays, this is 45%.

English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News ...

Health service’s specialist nurses who usually provide specialist services in such areas as maternity and obstetrics wards have been refusing to perform any more than average nursing duties as a form of protest, resulting in some maternity wards being closed down and several others grinding to a halt. The nurses started the action for an indefinite period, in protest over their salaries and lack of recognition for their work. They are being paid wages equal to common nursing services despite providing specialist care.

English: http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/health-services-specialist-nurses-protest ...

A biannual recruitment study from the Ministry for Employment concludes that by far the majority of businesses have no problem recruiting workers. There are still 114,900 unemployed workers who can and want to work. Less than one in ten companies in the survey had asked the unemployment insurance fund or the trade union for help in trying to find workers. More than 40 percent of the affected companies reply that they could have done more to attract the necessary manpower. At the same time, the survey shows that there is great potential when it comes to skilled labour.

English: https://lo.dk/en/ministry-employment-no-domestic-workforce-shortage/

Flight instructor Werner Fries took his case to a labour court in 2013 after his employer, Lufthansa, ended his contract when he turned 65 years, in line with EU law that forces passenger airline pilots to retire at 65. The court referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled that the action is legal and can be justified by the aim of ensuring civil aviation safety in Europe.

English: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload ...

The CJEU’s decision: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document ...

A report produced by the statistical office provides an updated picture of the country’s economic structure. The overview covers Luxembourg-based companies with at least 90 employees as of January 2017, active in a variety of sectors - from construction and the textile industry, to business and the steel industry. The list of the country’s largest employers is broken down according to employment size and economic activity.

English: https://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/employers …

The lists (French): http://www.statistiques.public.lu/fr/actualites/entreprises …

http://www.statistiques.public.lu/catalogue-publications/principales-employeurs …

http://www.statistiques.public.lu/catalogue-publications/principales-employeurs …