Collective Bargaining

Teachers' salaries will become a pressing issue again after the start of the new year. Even after the new government took over and presented a set of measures to improve the conditions for, teachers remain unsatisfied and are preparing yet more protest actions. They are unhappy with the funds allocated to the sector in the draft state budget for 2017. The unions' demands lie far beyond the offered improvements.
English: http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20252991/new-school-year-new-strike.html

Drivers for Uber's food delivery service are planning a protest in the latest sign of discontent within the gig economy. UberEats riders will demonstrate outside the group's London headquarters after the company cut the amount it pays per delivery, which some drivers say leaves them at risk of earning less than the minimum wage. They are calling on the company to pay the independently backed London living wage of £9.40 an hour. The action comes after more than 100 moped riders and cyclists took to the streets to protest against pay changes at rival food courier service Deliveroo that was ordered to pay the minimum wage.
English: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/25/ubereats-drivers .
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/deliveroo-ordered-to-pay-staff-the-minimum .

The registered unemployment rate stood at 13.3% in July 2016, which was 0.3 percentage points less than in June and 2 percentage points less than in July 2015, according to data announced by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Analysts point out that the lower unemployment rate in July is a result of usual seasonal trends in which summer months result in improvements in indicators from the labour market, combined with an ongoing migration. With the end of the tourist season approaching, some workers who are seasonally employed in the tourism sector and supporting activities will return to the ranks of the unemployed.
English: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/item/13754-registered-unemployment-rate .

With a majority of IT companies not joining collective bargaining, the labour market model with collective bargaining agreements that have helped deliver moderate pay increases and high minimum wages comes under pressure. As many as two thirds of firms operating in the IT sector do not sign collective agreements because they do not find them flexible or attractive enough. Tension is increasing in a labour market that has used industrial workers' salaries since the 1990s as a benchmark for wage increases across the board. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing, falling by about 22% to below 600,000 since 1996.
English: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-22/swedes-with-big-pay-dreams .

The study Precarious Employment in Europe: Patterns, trends and policy strategies, commissioned by the European Parliament, aims at providing a systematic overview of recent trends in different types of employment relationships and the related risk of precariousness. The study uses a set of indicators with a conceptual link to quality of work. The most relevant indicator for individual risk of precariousness is in-work poverty and low pay. Other indicators include social security, labour rights, stress and health, career development and training, and low levels of collective rights. A separate publication is dedicated to Precarious Employment in Europe: Country cases.
English: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2016/587303 .
Report (in English): http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/587285 .
Cases: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/587285 .

A planned strike by the transport union at OASTH, the Thessaloniki Urban Transport Organisation was suspended after the union could arrange a meeting with the management. The OASTH employees had threatened to begin strike actions, as the company's 2,300 employees are owed about 6.3 million euro in wages. The trade union is prepared to pick up the strike actions and will carry on legal courts actions.
English: http://www.tovima.gr/en/article .

The gradual reduction in the unemployment figures is not translating into any improvement for long-term unemployed: one in four jobless have been out of work for at least 4 years, says a report by the Fedea think tank based on official figures. One of the characteristics of the labour market is the large number of people with short-term contracts (25%): rotation mitigates to some extent the instability created by high levels of unemployment, but does not benefit the long-term jobless. Notwithstanding, high unemployment figures, employers say that it is hard to fill positions that require someone who is highly and recently qualified and holds a degree in finance-economics or engineering. Trade union UGT points out that recruiting experienced people cannot function due to the temporary nature of current contracts.
English: http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/08/08/inenglish .
http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/08/22/inenglish .
The Fedea report (in Spanish): http://documentos.fedea.net/pubs .

In the frame of the leadership contest, the acting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has formulated a series of ideas as part of wider reform that he promised would `democratise' the country from the ground up. Some ideas deal with the labour market. He is, for instance, promising mandatory collective bargaining for companies with more than 250 workers, staff representation on executive remuneration committees, strengthening individual rights for workers and sectoral trade union bargaining rights.
English: https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news .
http://www.ier.org.uk/news/corbyn-backs-mandatory-collective-bargaining

The Health Ministry signed an agreement with the General Workers' Union guaranteeing that their members will remain employed with the government despite the privatisation of the Gozo, St Luke's and Karin Grech Hospitals. The agreement with the union means that its members are guaranteed to be retained on the government payroll. A similar guarantee was signed with the nurses' union MUMN on 10 August.
English: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2016-08-22/local-news/Agreement-signed .
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160810/local/union-agreement-guarantees .

Trade union confederation SGB/USS calls for a mass demonstration and manifestation in September. The trade unions are fighting against a majority in the parliament that has planned to lower the second pillar pension and to increase the pension age. According to the union, the country is rich enough to finance the social security, but, therefore, the richer part of the population has to contribute more. Another demand is to stop social dumping. The manifestation is also meant to back up the AHVplus initiative (see next item).
French: http://www.uss.ch/actuel/kampagnenseiten-ohne-navigation/manif-nationale .
Italian: http://www.uss.ch/fileadmin .
German: http://www.sgb.ch/aktuell/kampagnenseiten .