Collective Bargaining

After nearly one year and three months of negotiations the Service Workers Union (ETKA) and SOKOTEL SOK Group concluded a new collective agreement for nearly 250 workers at two of SOKOTELS hotels in Tallinn, Solo SOKOS and Original SOKOS Hotel Viru, and all its restaurants, bars, nightclub and spa. The collective agreement is valid for two years. This is one of the first collective agreements for hotel and restaurants workers in the country. The collective agreement guarantees workers better working conditions.
English: http://nu-hrct.dk/nyheder/new-collective-agreement

Based on data from the office for statistics, the chamber of labour AK has calculated that some 52 million hours of overtime were not paid in 2015. This would equal 30,000 fulltime jobs. In its daily juridical assistance AK is regularly confronted with non-pay of overtime. In order to prevent breaches the AK suggest introducing a sanctioning based on the doubling of the compensation pay.
English: http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/PeopleSociety/labour_market/working .
German: https://wien.arbeiterkammer.at/interessenvertretung/arbeitsmarkt/Krasse_Faelle .

The government prepares a new round of slashing the higher public sector salaries. The aim is to ensure no one who is paid by the taxpayer or public purse earns more than a minister's basic wage of €179,000 a year. The current limits apply to senior executives but the government wants to extend the threshold to everyone working in the public sector, including advisors and other managers. However, the proposal includes a mechanism that provides for occasional exceptions.
English: http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/04/12/interior-min-slash-top-public-sector-salaries/

In the updated World Economic Outlook 2016, the IMF predicts a baseline projection for global growth in 2016 of a modest 3.2 percent, broadly in line with 2015, and a 0.2 percentage point downward revision relative to the January 2016 Update. The recovery is projected to strengthen in 2017 and beyond, driven primarily by emerging market and developing economies, as conditions in stressed economies start gradually to normalise. In the 3rd chapter of the report (titled Time for a supply-side boost), the IMF continues with the plea for labour market reform and deregulation, although the organisation admits that these reforms can have a negative effect: `the impact becomes contractionary if the reforms are undertaken during periods of slack'. It is interesting to read in a special box (3.2) how the organisation struggles with the fact that there is hardly any evidence in Europe for the advocated IMF-policy of decentralisation of collective bargaining and its fight against sector level bargaining and extension of agreements.
English: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs .
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo .

Just two out of eight public sector unions went to a meeting with government representatives planned for 11 April. Six public sector unions explained why the negotiations with the government did not take place. The trade union representatives reiterated they did want to negotiate and invited the government to come to a meeting. Unions demand an increase in base salary by six percent for about 250,000 people, according to an agreement from 2009 which came into force on 1 January 2016 (see our March Newsletter). The government does not deny the right to the raise, but it would need about 1.8 billion kuna (240 million euro) a year for the increase. The funds have not been appropriated in the 2016 state budget and the projections for 2017-2018.
English: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/11364-public-sector-unions-boycott .

After the contractor Gozdno Gospodarstvo Postojna terminated the contract with its subcontractor Veles, which was recriminated by the Financial Administration and labour inspection of exploitation of foreign workers, 90 workers were directly employed by its business unit Marof Trade. The company signed contracts with them for the duration of three months, with a possibility of extension, and with an obligatory insurance.
English: http://www.rtvslo.si/news-in-english/better-times-for-exploited-foreign-workers .

The dockworker trade union, Sindicato dos Estivadores, Trabalhadores do Tráfego e Conferentes Marítimos (SETC), issued notice of planned strike action beginning on 20 April 2016 at the ports of Lisbon, Setúbal, and Figueira da Foz. The Port of Lisbon will see stoppage at all of its terminals involving movement of cargo, while Setúbal and Figueira da Foz will stop work on cargo ships rerouted from Lisbon. The strike action has to influence the settlement of a new collective agreement between port workers and operators.
English: http://shipandbunker.com/news/world/834031-portuguese-ports-to-be-hit .

Through statistically modelling, researchers found a significant improvement in the overall level of mental health in those receiving the mandatory minimum wage equivalent to the effect of taking antidepressants. In a paper, published in the journal Health Economics, the researchers conclude that wage rises for low-paid workers reduce feelings of anxiety and depression partly, at least, because they are under less financial strain. The researchers analysed data from the British Household Panel Survey, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of approximately 5,500 households and 10,000 individuals, covering 1991 to 2009. They focused, in particular, on survey responses in the months leading up to the introduction of the national minimum wage and the months directly afterwards.
English: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-effect-national-minimum-wage-similar .
The paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi .

FBME Bank staff announced that they will be going on an indefinite strike in protest against the mass lay-off of 136 staff. On 31 March, the new administrator of FBME in Cyprus, delivered signed redundancy notices to 136 FBME Bank workers, covering the major part of the remaining employee base of FBME in the country, citing cost cutting for this decision. The mass lay-offs came after a recent decision by the US Treasury Department's financial crime enforcement network - FinCEN - to support an earlier ruling prohibiting US banks from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts of or on behalf of FBME, which, FinCEN described as a primary money laundering concern.
English: http://in-cyprus.com/fbme-bank-staff-cyprus-go-indefinite-strike/

The Cyprus Employers' Federation's new chair believes a law restricting strike action in essential services is paramount. The OEB federation has drafted its own proposals on curbing strikes at hospitals and state utilities based on the argument that the economy is fragile and the expectations of unions are unjustifiably high. The Employers have sent that draft document to President Nicos Anastasiades and four key ministers - Labour, Finance, Commerce and Health.
English: http://in-cyprus.com/oeb-seeks-end-crippling-strikes/