The government and public sector trade unions started negotiations on a collective agreement. Negotiating committees of the government and unions will negotiate about increasing the base salary by 6%, following GDP growth in two consecutive quarters by two or more percent, according to an agreement signed in 2009. The government does not deny that the employees are entitled to the raise, but for the fulfilment of the obligation it would have to find around 1.8 billion Croatian Kuna (240 million euro) a year. These funds are not included in the 2016 budget which is expected to be adopted soon, and have not been included in the budget projections for 2017 and 2018. The trade unions announced that they will not give up on the increase.
English: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/2995-government-and-public-sector .
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The Confederation of Malta Trade Unions demands that before final agreements on employees' working conditions are signed, any deals signed by the government with foreign entrepreneurs should be tabled in Parliament and independently audited. In a statement, the CMTU said it is supporting the stand taken by the UHM Voice of the Workers and the Medical Association of Malta on the privatisation of the Gozo Hospital, Karen Grech Hospital and St Luke's Hospital. The CMTU also called for an audit by the National Audit Office on the government's agreements - including those that have not yet been finalised - with Vitalis Global Healthcare, the winning bidder for the €200 million project.
English: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view .
After a tripartite 21-point plan was formulated in February (see our February Newsletter) the government concluded an agreement with trade union and business representatives that they say will help refugees get into the national labour force. The key point of the agreement is a new so-called `integration basic education' scheme (IGU), which aims to put refugees in short-term jobs at an apprentice salary level of between 50 to 120 kroner per hour. The IGU jobs can last for up to two years and refugees will also be offered skill development or education courses of up to 20 weeks. Companies who hire refugees under the IGU scheme can qualify for a financial bonus of up to 40,000 kroner if the refuges are employed for two years.
English: http://www.thelocal.dk/20160318/denmark-has-new-plan-to-get-refugees-into-work
Statistics Lithuania has published updated data and graphs on the wage development (over the period October 2014-2015). The number of employees (including individual enterprises) with gross earnings of 325 euro and less stood at 212.1 thousand (19.2%). More than half of employees (127.8 thousand) earning 325 euro and less were working part-time. Over these twelve months, the number of full-time employees earning a minimum monthly wage decreased by 0.4 percentage points. In October 2015, the number of full-time employees earning the minimum wage, against the total number of full-time employees of the respective sector, stood at 8.8% (84.3 thousand) in the whole economy, or 5.9% (19.1 thousand) in the public sector and10.2% (65.2 thousand) in the private sector.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics .
The Chamber of Labour produces a quarterly that is available online. The Number 1 issue of 2016 writes about sustainable energy and the EU-emission policy. Also included are contributions on the transfer of undertakings, inequality and public procurement. One contribution deals with wage moderation (page 11-13). According to the author a serious increase of real wages is necessary; it will stimulate the consumption of households, improve the domestic demand and the perspectives for companies and contribute to growth.
German: https://media.arbeiterkammer.at/wien/AK_Wirtschaftspolitik .
A High Court judge has ruled 27 Portuguese workers who worked in Ireland on a road project are entitled to recover damages, estimated at some €1.5m, plus interest, over breach of their employment contracts with three Portuguese companies that traded as the RAC Éire partnership. The Court ruled that there should be no `race to the bottom' where rights and conditions of workers are concerned. Among several findings, the firms engaged in `systematic and deliberate' under-recording of hours of work, leading to underpayment of the workers. The Court also found the defendants were not entitled to deduct €17.50 daily (?520 monthly) from the workers' wages for accommodation of a `deplorable, even dangerous' standard.
English: http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0318/775882-portugal-workers-pay/
Strike action at the Port of Grangemouth was suspended after Forth Ports agreed to lift their imposition on shift rotation changes and enter into conciliation. Arrangements are now being made with the conciliation services at Acas and talks are expected to commence. Members of the trade union Unite had initiated a fortnight of strikes after imposed changes by employer Forth Ports to shift rotations at the port affecting operative work, specifically: a 25% increase in weekend shift work with the removal of overtime pay rates, a decrease in night shift cover from one week in seven and one week in eight and an increase in the number of shift teams from seven to eight.
English: http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/port-of-grangemouth-strike-suspended .
Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, published figures on labour costs. Hourly labour costs rose by 1.3 % in the euro area and by 1.9 % in the EU-28 in the fourth quarter of 2015, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the third quarter of 2015, hourly labour costs increased by 1.1 % in the euro area and by 1.9 % in the EU-28. In the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hourly labour costs in the euro area rose by 1.2% in industry, by 0.5% in construction, by 1.3% in services and by 1.6% in the (mainly) non-business economy. In the EU-28, labour costs per hour grew by 1.7% in industry, by 2.5% in construction, by 2.0% in services and by 1.7% in the (mainly) non-business economy.
English: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Labour_cost_index .
In a survey conducted in 2015 by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) the population indicated that one household member needs at least 483 euro monthly. To pay for usual necessary expenses of one household member households needed 31 euro or 6.7% more financial means in 2015, compared to 2014. During the last years household disposable income has grown sharply, but the amount still is too small to make ends meet. In 2014, the population pointed out that one household member needs at least 452 euro monthly, while disposable income per household member was 14% lower and reached only 387 euro monthly. Data on income in 2015 will be compiled in a similar survey in 2016. The survey data show that the population assessment of ability to make and meet (i.e., pay for usual necessary expenses) has improved.
English: http://www.csb.gov.lv/en/notikumi/population-claims-amount-needed .
Employers cannot stop potential strikes by demanding that district courts impose conditional fines on unions when the collective agreement is valid. The Supreme Court made this decision in the case of a planned strike at the national flag carrier Finnair. In June 2012 Finnair salaried employees belonging to the Trade Union Pro and some other unions announced they were taking strike action due to planned personnel cuts and outsourcing. The company asked the Helsinki district court to ban the strike and impose a conditional fine of almost three million euro on the unions. The district court accepted the application on the very same day without hearing the defendants. In the event, the strike was called off but the case led to a juridical process lasting almost four years and went all the way to the Supreme Court. Now the Supreme Court has set an important precedent by ruling that the only court that has the competence to handle issues of possible breaches of collective agreements is the Labour Court. It also said that according to the Collective Agreements Act a court cannot prohibit industrial action.
English: http://heikkijokinen.info/en/trade-union-news-from-finland/982-supreme-court .