The first ruling of a court about the minimum wage, which came into effect in 2015, came down on the side of employers. The judge sided with a hospital service company which argued that the minimum hourly wage applied to a person's total yearly income, inclusive of holiday and Christmas bonuses which employers are not legally obliged to provide. A hospital employee was being paid €8.03 per hour, far below the legal minimum wage of €8.50. But, by adding her Christmas bonus and her holiday money onto her hourly wage, her employer had managed to calculate the woman's annual wage up to €8.69 an hour.
English: http://www.thelocal.de/jobs/article/how-your-employer-can-still-pay-under .
German: http://www.kostenlose-urteile.de/BAG_5-AZR-13516_Mindestlohn-Urteil-Arbeitgeber .
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Last month we already reported about an ongoing dispute between air traffic controllers and the airport management at Keflavík International Airport. Air traffic controllers have been on a work-to-rule strike since 6 April, mean they work only their standard hours with no overtime allowed. All Icelandair flights to Europe and North America are suffering delays, due to a collective bargaining disagreement over pay and working conditions between the Icelandic Air Traffic Controllers Association (FIF) and airport management.
English: http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/05/26/iceland_atc .
The police trade union federation Politiforbundet has made an agreement with national police force Rigspolitiet to offer salary bonuses to officers who move from another jurisdiction to take a job in Copenhagen or south Jutland. The bonuses range between 30,000 and 60,000 kroner annually. Officers willing to move across the bridge from Jutland or Funen to Copenhagen will earn the top bonuses.
English: http://cphpost.dk/news/police-officers-who-choose-copenhagen-will-get-a-bonus .
A strike by Tesco workers which was due to be held on 26 May has been called off pending further talks between the parties. According to the Mandate trade union, as many as 5,000 workers were due to take part in the industrial action. Both parties have now agreed to take part in further talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The dispute centres on plans by Tesco to move some 300 of its staff recruited before 1996 to contracts introduced for personnel taken on after that date. This could lead to pay cuts of 15 per cent to 20 per cent, reductions to overtime rates and changes to rosters.
English: http://www.rte.ie/news .
Microsoft has announced it is shutting down mobile device research and development operations in Finland with the loss of some 1,350 jobs. Worldwide an additional 500 jobs will be cut. The company bought Nokia's mobile phone business in 2014 but has failed to make it profitable. In 2015 the firm shut down some operations and went over to the closure of the Salo site with the loss of 2,300 jobs.
English: http://yle.fi/uutiset/microsoft_to_cut_1350_jobs_in_finland .
According to the financial sector trade union EFTL, the relationship between the Nordea Estonia bank and the union has not improved, after the leaving of the former union representative. The union is accusing the bank's board of blocking the concluding of a collective agreement and breaching the Trade Union Act. The union stated that the bank is also preventing the union from holding meetings and events at the bank's rooms. The management at Nordea Estonia said in a letter that Nordea is open to constructive dialogue with the representatives of the bank's employees.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/finances .
The cabinet approved a legislative amendment in a fast-tracked procedure that leads to an improvement of teachers' wages. It thereby fulfilled some of the commitments outlined in the Government Manifesto. In the regional education sector, the cabinet committed itself to increase the salary scales for teaching and specialist staff by an average of 6 percent, from 1 September 2016. In addition, salaries will be increased each year from 1 January 2018 if significant internal changes in the education system are adopted. The cabinet also pledged to increase the salaries of university lecturers.
English: http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20173613/cabinet-approves-6-percent-rise .
Statistics Estonia published wage data for the 1st quarter of 2016. The average monthly gross wages and salaries were 1,091 euro and the average hourly gross wages and salaries were 6.86 euro. Compared to the 1st quarter of 2015, the average monthly gross wages and salaries increased by 8.1% and the average hourly gross wages and salaries by 7.7%. The increase was mainly due to the irregular bonuses and premiums, which increased 32.5% per employee compared to the 1st quarter of 2015 and which affected the increase in average gross monthly wages and salaries by 0.8 percentage points. Without irregular bonuses and premiums, the average monthly gross wages and salaries increased by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Minimum wages increased from 390 euro to 430 euro at the beginning of 2016. The office also published wage data for the year 2015. The average monthly gross income per employee in 2015 was 1013 euro, a 6% increase.
English: http://www.stat.ee/277448
http://www.stat.ee/277468
According to the Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), companies are booming yet wages are stagnating. Several studies reveal that the share of middle-class individuals in the total population sank by more than five percent between 1991 and 2013. The `middle class' comprises all adults whose total household income-before taxes and social security contributions-falls between 67 and 200 percent of the median, which separates the higher-income half from the lower-income half of the population. High-income individuals' share in total income, increased to 33 percent by 2010, up from 22 percent in 1991 to 31 percent in 2013. In contrast, the share of the middle class in the total income decreased by around ten percentage points after 1991, down from roughly 68 percent. A very instructive online documentary sketches out what is causing the increasing disparity between income levels.
English: http://www.dw.com/en/how-socially-just-is-germany .
German: http://link.springer.com/article .
A comparative report (Germany and US): https://www.diw.de/sixcms/detail .
In the course of this month several collective agreements were concluded or renewed. Trade unions and employers finalised agreements in the leather and shoe industries, in the glass and glass processing industries and for the ground personnel of the airports. Most agreements apply for a period of 12 months and were to expire. The average pay increase as per 1 May or 1 June 2016 is between 1.2 and 1.5%.
German: http://www.kollektivvertrag.at/cms .