Collective Bargaining

The E-Journal ADAPT published an article on recent trends in collective bargaining in Europe (originally included in Volume 5 of the Journal Series). Although several countries had already introduced labour reforms in the past years, the crisis was undoubtedly an accelerating force that initiated more and deeper changes. In fact, legislators not only changed the rules regarding the substance of wages, working hours, dismissal, pensions, and unemployment benefits, but also the way working conditions/labour standards are set. The author considers such changes and how in a number of cases (e.g. Portugal and Greece), the reforms were demanded by external entities as a condition for financial assistance. All the analysed changes initiated a radical alteration of the structures and principles that are the essence of the collective bargaining system.
English: http://www.adapt.it/EJCLS/index .

A District Court has given pilots and cabin crew a legal victory by upholding their claim that Norwegian Air Shuttle is their true employer. The pilots and cabin crew sued the airline because they believe that the parent company Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) - and not one of its subsidiaries - is their actual employer. The employees also contended that the company has entered illegal labour contracts. The court verdict sided with their claim and ruled that NAS is the employees' true employer and that Norwegian has engaged in illegal hiring practises. The Parat trade union said the decision is very important for the future organisation of the labour market as it puts an end to business models, which are solely intended to undermine workers' rights and preventing the Working Environment protection provisions.
English: http://norwaytoday.info/finance/pilots-cabin-crew-won-norwegian/

Lufthansa and the cabin crew union UFO have reached a deal in a long-running dispute over pay, conditions and pensions, in a boost for the carrier which is also negotiating with pilots. The deal was achieved thanks to a mediator, who will formally announce the terms in July once a few final details have been agreed, the two sides said. Until then, both sides said they had agreed to keep the terms confidential.
English: http://news.airwise.com/story/lufthansa-cabin-crew-union-agree-deal

Energy companies and trade unions began two-day wage talks in a bid to avert a strike that would cut output from Europe's largest oil producer by six percent, the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said. The trade unions are seeking pay increases in line with other industries while producers want workers to refrain from seeking such increases and to accept more flexible work practices citing still weak oil prices. State-mediated wage talks so far in 2016 have resulted in wage increases of around 2.4 percent. Union leaders said the talks would be difficult, but added they aim to come to an agreement with employers within that frame.
English: http://in.reuters.com/article/norway-oil-strike .

Trade union OGBl and the management of Delphi Luxembourg have signed an agreement for the 600 workers of the group. The agreement will run from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018. Agreed is a pay increase of 1.25% in the year 2016 and an additional 0.5% in the following two years. The minimum weekly gross wage is fixed at 350 euro. A joint committee will work out the details of an agreed system of variable wage components.
French: http://www.ogbl.lu/blog/renouvellement-de-la-convention-collective-24/

The trade unions representing handling and passenger assistance workers at the country's airports - Faro, Porto, Lisbon, Beja, Madeira and the Azores - have announced a three-day-strike from 1 July. The strike is against the liberalisation of the handling sector, against the low salary model, and precarious employment conditions which have dragged on from year to year at national airports. The strike will affect leading handling companies Groundforce and Portway, but also covers employees of temping agencies and outsourced services working in the field.
English: http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/biggest-airport-strikes-ever .

Thousands of protesters marched in Paris as the Senate approved a hotly debated government bill reforming labour laws. The government allowed the protest march after negotiating an alternative route for the demonstration, which was initially banned. The government wants the reforms to make it easier to lay off employees, allow temporary extensions of the work week and give company deals priority over industry-wide deals. Some unions argue it would weaken workers' rights. During two weeks of debate, the Senate, led by a conservative majority, substantially changed the bill to make it more pro-business. Yet, the labour reforms must be debated again in July at the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, led by a socialist majority. Amendments that have been proposed by the government so far have not satisfied the strongest opponents, the trade unions CGT and FO.
English: http://www.france24.com/en/20160628-thousands-march-paris .
French: http://www.europe1.fr/societe/loi-travail-en-progres-mais-pas-suffisant .

The labour court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) has formulated that the statutory minimum hourly wage has to be applied for the hours that workers are on-call. Furthermore, the court defined what has to be understood as on-call time. The court argued that the Bill on the statutory wage has no differentiation between regular work and on-call hours. On-call hours count if the employee has to wait and stay at a certain place and has to be available to start working at any minute.
German: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/mindestlohn-gilt-auch-fuer .

The NGO Fairwork and research institute SOMO published a report on Polish migrant workers. The researchers interviewed over hundred Polish migrant workers all over the Netherlands on wages, discrimination, exploitation and sexual intimidation, social isolation and work pressure, health and lack of insurance. These workers still face long working days, unpaid overtime, sexual intimidation and threats, despite a series of measures the government took since 2011 to improve the situation of Polish migrant workers. Because of their dependency on recruitment agencies, Polish migrant workers remain extremely vulnerable to exploitation.
English: http://www.fairwork.nu/actueel/nieuws_van_fairwork/profiting-from-dependency .
The report: http://www.fairwork.nu/assets/structured-files .

Statistics Austria reports that in 2015, 1.21 million or 33.5% of the employees worked in non-standard employment - either in part-time, in marginal part-time, with limited or free service contracts or in temporary employment. At the same time, the number of employees (3.61 million) increased by 43 000 compared to 2014. This increase was mainly due to a rise of part-time work, but the number of persons in standard employment increased as well (+13 000). 84.0% of all male but only 47.9% of all female employees worked in standard employment. Thus, for women non-standard employment is almost as frequent as standard employment.
English: http://www.statistik.at/web_en/press .
German (with statistics): http://www.statistik.at/web_de/presse .