Collective Bargaining

The industrial action by Air Malta cabin crew has been lifted, seven hours after the Union of Cabin Crew stunned management with the unilateral action. In a brief statement, the airline said that operations will return to normal with immediate effect. Cabin crew had embarked on the action in protest at what they said were breaches in the collective agreement.
English: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170317/local/industrial-action ...

The dockers’ unions have called off a planned strike action after the opposition parties in the Parliament voted against a government decree, meant to liberalise the hiring of port labour. The decree, which would have allowed companies to freely hire workers to load and unload cargo. Current port labour practises, which involve employing workers provided by a pool company, contravene EU regulations, resulting in the government racking up €23m in fines since 2014. The European Commission, which suspended the fines as the government showed progress on the reforms, has suggested they may be imposed again.
English: http://container-mag.com/2017/03/17/strikes-off-spanish-opposition-votes-reforms/

Workers in four Delhaize hypermarkets, in the Brussels area have spontaneously stopped work. The CNE (the French-speaking retail and service sector trade union) has stated that employees from the retailer are protesting against the effects of the 2014 restructuring plan. Of particular concern is the management of the restructuring plan decided in June 2014. This anticipated shedding the jobs of some 1,800 colleagues. Workers are asking for employment structural reinforcement, which does not include intermittent arrangements involving fixed term contracts or student contracts.
English: http://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/7776/spontaneous-strike-action ...

The Athens Retail Workers' Union issued a statement denouncing the draft employment contract presented by the multinational fashion store company H&M. The union accuses the retail company of trying to impose an agreement which further reduces workers’ rights. Specifically, the union points out at certain parts of the contract that obliges employees to work at any branch the company decides at any given time, increases working hours through 'flexibility' provisions and imposes a set of internal regulations, threatening employees with penalties, or even laying off, if they don't comply. Moreover, the proposed agreement makes it easy for the employer to reduce salaries and dismiss employees. The union statement calls for H&M employees to refrain from signing the contract and join the H&M Fight committee in their quest for a reinstatement of collective bargaining.
English: http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/Retail-workers-union-stands-up ...

Around 72,000 steel workers will get a 2.3 percent pay hike from April 2017, and another 1.7 percent from next May in a deal reached for steelworkers in north-western Germany after a third round of negotiations in the western city of Düsseldorf between employers' group Arbeitgeberverband Stahl and trade union IG Metall. IG Metall had called for employees at firms in the steel sector to get 4.5 percent more pay over the course of 12 months. Employers had only offered a 1.3 percent rise during the first round of negotiations but thousands of steel workers have since exerted pressure by carrying out warning strikes.
English: http://www.dw.com/en/german-steelworkers-strike-benchmark-pay-deal ...

The OECD published an interesting report with key economic figures. The main objective of the paper is to describe the corporate governance setting in the country, including the supervisory board regulations and stakeholder involvement. But, there are also data on the structure of the economy. In the period 2010 and 2015 unemployment decreased with 10% (from 19.5% in 2010 to 9.7% in 2015).
English: http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/governance/corporate …

Global transport union ITF has demanded the unconditional withdrawal of convictions against 14 union members caught up in government moves to outlaw trade unionism in the country. More than 4,000 people have already signed a new online LabourStart petition to demand justice for the imprisoned unionists. The moves come after the supreme court upheld the sentences, despite previous appeals against the verdicts by the ITF and TÜMTİS.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/en/news-events/news/2017/march ...

The government has approved a decree abolishing one of the most flexible and unregulated forms of payment for workers, heading off a referendum on the issue and accepting trade union’s demands on this issue. Payment by vouchers was introduced in 2008 as an experiment for seasonal farm workers but its use has expanded steadily and is now widely abused, according to labour experts. The largest union, CGIL, collected three million signatures last year to force a referendum to abolish voucher payment. However, rather than risk a bruising ballot-box defeat, the government has decided to act pre-emptively by withdrawing the vouchers pay system before the vote is held.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-employment-reform …

The large imposing and traditional Alfa Hotel opposite the capital’s train station, suddenly found itself facing a closure order, affecting about 70 employees, due to internal disputes. According to the OGBL trade, ongoing disputes between the owners of the building, a Swiss consortium, and the principal tenant Rolphe Reding, are the reasons for the abrupt closure. The union spoke about a disaster for the staff. The business ran smoothly at the hotel and everything had always been in order. Talks are planned about the consequences.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/luxembourg/due-to-disputes-luxembourg-city ...

Taxi drivers in Barcelona and Madrid were set to strike in protest against the stance of public authorities that they believe favours unfair competition from multinational firms such as Uber and Cabify. Public transport is threatened by powerful lobbies that are seeking to remove the regulatory framework surrounding the taxi activities said the associations behind the strike in a statement. In late 2014, a court ordered Uber to stop operations in the country after a complaint from a taxi association that came in the wake of numerous protests from the sector. However, in mid-2015, the firm returned to Barcelona operating as a food delivery service known as Uber Eats. In March 2016, Uber made a comeback in the capital in the form of UberX which sees users put in touch with professional drivers holding passenger transport vehicle (VTC) licenses, which fall under different regulations from the taxi sector.
English: http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/03/16/inenglish ...