Collective Bargaining

Four trade union leaders have been dismissed during the wage negotiation round by the Fővárosi Közterület-fenntartó Nonprofit (FKF) Zrt (Capital Public Domain Maintenance Company). The union representatives demanded a fair wage increase and expressed readiness to resort to strike action due to the dissatisfaction of workers. Trade union confederation MASZSZ considers these dismissals a clear violation of the collective right to represent the interest of the workers in collective bargaining.
English: http://szakszervezet.net/en/international-news/1129-flagrant-violation ...
https://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign …

‘Forgotten by the management’ is the title of a background article that is dedicated to the working conditions in large retail chains. Several cited experts note that the work organisation with cash decks, based on a Taylorian model, has hardly evolved since the invention of the supermarkets. Workers are disciplined through double control mechanisms, filmed by cameras and under surveillance of their store management. Cashiers have benefited little from technological innovations, apart from automatic scanning. Depending on the flow of products, cashiers can neither be absent from their positions, nor stretch their legs, let alone decide their breaks, programmed by the hierarchy according to peaks of affluence. The trade unions try to improve the situation by promoting more all-round tasks and other methods to break monotony.
French: http://business.lesechos.fr/directions-ressources-humaines ...

According to the Statistical Office the number of foreigners in 2015, with 464,700 registered foreign nationals, was the highest in the country’s history. Companies in the country face a shortage of qualified workers. The government created a fast track programme aimed at increasing the influx of skilled workers from Ukraine. The idea has been criticised since there are still about 380,000 unemployed. The trade unions were cautious about the system for importing Ukrainian labour from the start and have tried to seek guarantees that imported skilled workers would get the same sort of wages as their Czech counterparts. The employers stressed the country needs foreign workers and said their lack could be a brake for future economic growth.
English: http://www.radio.cz/en/section/marketplace/fast-track-programme-for-ukraine ...
http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/employers-stress-countrys-need-for-more …
http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/number-of-foreigners-in-czech-republic-rises ...

Trade union organisations and the employers have adopted a social agreement for 2017-2018, paving the way for a 1.1% annual wage rise on top of pay scale increases and automatic wage indexation. The agreement marks a return to the system of social dialogue. Next to wage increases, the agreement includes an increase of the age of early retirement for employees made redundant as a result of corporate restructuring, workers in strenuous occupations and long-serving employees. As of 2019, employees in these groups will no longer be eligible to join early pension schemes from the age of 55, but must instead wait until they are 60.
French: https://www.csc-en-ligne.be …
Several links (in French): http://www.fgtb.be/-/le-g10-est-parvenu-a-un-projet ...
Dutch: http://www.socialedialoog.be/index …
Several links (in Dutch): http://www.abvv.be/-/sociale-gesprekspartners-sluiten-ontwerp …

The plan of post company Bpost to transfer some 200 jobs of external ICT specialists to two Indian companies was received very critical by both the Telecommunications Minister and the trade unions. The unions are furious and call it a scandal for a publicly-owned company to move jobs abroad to low-wage countries. One of the tasks of the still employed 200 ICT specialists is to train the Indian workers.
English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/Economy ...
Dutch: http://www.skynet.be/nieuws-sport/business ...

The trade union GEW is initiating a campaign called ‘Education. Thinking ahead – More money for education!’ (Bildung. Weiter denken – mehr Geld für Bildung!), aimed at increasing the governments’ funding for education. After a successful rally for the improvement of teaching and learning conditions in primary schools, launched last year by GEW, this year’s efforts will focus on the topic of working conditions and professional status in the education sector.
English: https://www.ei-ie.org/en/news ...

The blog Arbeit & Wissenschaft comments (in German) the ECB-publication on earnings and wealth that came out shortly before Christmas 2016. The ECB-publication reveals that the richest 10% of households in the Eurozone owns more than 50% of all capital (the richest 5% in total 38%). This share increased during the crisis. In the blog the methodology is criticised because information of the superrich is missing and, as a consequence, the real size of inequality is blurred. If the ECB-policy on taxation and transfers is based on such incomplete figures, the authors see a risk of neglect of the interests of large parts of the society. The blog refers also to an earlier own compilation (in German) with inequality analyses by several authors.
Comments by A&W (in German): http://blog.arbeit-wirtschaft.at/neue-daten ...
ECB-press statement: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/press …
The ECB-report: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf ...
The A&W compilation (in German): http://blog.arbeit-wirtschaft.at/wp-content ...

The leader of trade union vida has asked the Chamber of Commerce, the employers’ delegation that normally negotiates the wages, to open up a new bargaining round with the aim to improve the collective minimum wage. The country is rich enough to lift up the minimum wage in all collective agreements to 1500 euro, according to vida. This is especially necessary in low-wage sectors like hospitality, cleaning, security workers and other services. The requested amount of 1500 euro is seen as the absolute low; the future target should be 1700 euro, as formulated by the confederation ÖGB.
German: http://www.oegb.at/cms …

The Chamber of Labour (AK) published a paper on the impact of statutory minimum wages in a cross-border context, notably in international transport. The Austrian legislature recently decided against applying the minimum wage for pure transit, in cases of services with limited scope and short duration. Referring to the controversy (between Germany and France on the one, Poland and the Czech Republic on the other hand) on overriding reasons for the application of these minimum wages, the author states that the frequency of transit journeys and the wage difference must be regarded as major factors within the meaning of a flexible system. Since the additional administrative costs for the employer is relatively low, in view of modern technical opportunities, proportionality is as a rule only not applicable if the wage difference is minimal and/or the company concerned deploys employees for transit journeys only in exceptional cases.
The report (in English): http://www.akeuropa.eu/_includes …

A legal notice revising the way in which a trade union wins recognition at the workplace is being hailed by both employers and unions as one which could prevent unnecessary disputes and strikes. Legal notice 413 prevents a number of problems by providing clearer definitions and also lays down remedies for when a challenge is made. The secretary general of the GWU said that ‘clearly defined parameters’ were the way to avoid disputes, for the trade union itself, between trade unions, and between trade unions and the employer.
English: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles ...