The 2017 Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) report, from the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, looks at the adequacy of welfare and minimum-wage incomes for 12 different household types, including families with one to four children, single adults and couples under 66, and single and couple pensioners, in both urban and rural locations. It calculates income needs, as opposed to wants, for such basics as healthy food, clothing and heating. The main conclusions are that while households dependent on social welfare have seen an improvement in their income adequacy, welfare still does not provide a minimum essential income for the majority of households dependent on it.
English (reports and presentations): https://www.budgeting.ie/publications/mesl-2017 …
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The Seimas (the parliament) passed the amendments to the Labour Code, which comes into force on 1 July 2017. The Bill was signed by the country’s presidency on 14 June 2017. An earlier version of the Bill was vetoed by the presidency. After the government and the trade unions agreed to improve the code, the parliament decided to override the earlier president's veto. Critics still warn that the new Code will make it easier for employers to dismiss employees.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/markets_and_companies …
In March, the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK terminated all national agreements with the trade union confederations and stated that it was no longer willing to make any further national level labour market agreements. Therefore, the time of centralised nation level labour market agreements is over. The existing collective agreements start to expire after summer. Unions are preparing to set out their goals for the negotiations. As pay increases seem possible after years of stagnation, many have made it clear that pay rises are necessary during the upcoming collective bargaining round and wage decisions must roll back the adverse effects that the competitiveness pact imposed on workers.
English: http://heikkijokinen.info/trade-union-news-from-finland/1267-unions-demand …
After a long period of industrial action and warn strikes, the trade unions and the management of Holland Casino (3000 workers) reached a pay deal. The agreement includes a one-off payment of 4.5% over 2016 and a pay increase of 2% in 2017 and in 2018. For the years after (2019 and 2020), the agreement foresees a pay increase in line with the average wage development. There will be no forced redundancies during the period that the agreement is in force.
English: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/06/unions-and-state-owned-casino …
Workers responded to the dismissal of union leaders at German radiator and cooling system manufacturer AKG Thermotechnik by staying in the factory. Management called the police, who evicted the workers. A total of 25 workers was dismissed. The workers are maintaining a picket outside the plant. As required by labour law, the union received a majority certificate from the Ministry of Labour. This certifies that the union represents the majority of the 120 workers at the factory, and that the company should begin negotiations. However, the company challenged the certificate in a court case, which is ongoing. Instead of negotiating with the union, on 25 May, the company began dismissing union leaders.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/akg-thermotechnik-fires-union-leaders-in-turkey
The ruling coalition partners reached an agreement on raising mandatory social insurance contributions. The contributions will be raised in order to increase the financing of the health care sector. It is planned that the social insurance contributions will be raised by 1 percentage age point – 0.5 % for contributions paid by employers, and 0.5 for employees. A special payment might be set for those people who do not pay social tax.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/finances …
The government asked the social partners to come to an agreement before 30 June 2017 on a 1500-euro minimum wage and the flexibilization of the working time. The introduction of a mandatory minimum wage at the level of 1500 euro, beginning with the year 2020, was agreed. The idea is to realise this in collective bargaining. Further flexibilization, however, could not be concluded. The employers came with a demand to create a general application of a 12 hours working day. For the workers’ side, this proposal is unacceptable. There can be situations were a long working day is applied, but this has to be compensated by additional holidays or working time reduction.
German: http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/oesterreich/politik …
The works council at DHL Aviation announced that the delivery company will engage more people directly. In June, 50 workers have received a permanent contract and the plan is to change the contract of another 75 temporary workers in July into permanent contracts. Earlier on, an undercover-reportage had discovered that workers often worked several months as day labourers, a type of employment that is only permitted for certain short-term work. The European Works Council at DHL plans to monitor the employment practices more closely.
French: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.francais …
German: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.deutsch/Wirtschaft …
Dutch (including the Reportage): http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/economie …
Official data show that 924,321 jobs were created in the January-May 2017 period, of which 459,888 are full-time and 464,433 positions are part-time. However, one half of the new jobs in the private sector are not only part-time, but also paid below the minimum wage. The figures look promising regarding the number of recruitments, but the wages are low and in most cases the jobs are on flexible, rotating schedules. In most full-time jobs, employees work for more than 10 hours per day with no overtime pay.
English: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2017/06/14/half-of-new-greek-jobs …
The statistical office ISTAT published employment and wage data. Istat also published its annual report 2017 on low-income and inequality. The reports reveal that almost half a million of the 3.5 million civil servants work in precarious forms of labour. Some 300,000 workers are engaged in temporary contracts and another 200,000 workers in freelance contracts with no or little job security. The working conditions in the public sector have not been renewed for eight years. The responsible ministry announced that talks will start soon.
English: http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/english/248567/civil-service-contract-talks …
ISTAT reports: http://www.istat.it/en/files/2017/06/EN_Income_redistribution_2016 …
https://www.istat.it/en/files/2017/06/Annual_report_-2017_summary.pdf